“I've been training for this my whole life” - Jarred Brooks ready to unseat strawweight king Joshua Pacio

Jarred Brooks did the work, and he’s now ready to finally take the biggest step of his professional career when he challenges Joshua Pacio for the ONE strawweight world title.

The American wrestler will stake his claim for ONE Championship gold when he takes on Pacio in the main event of ONE 164: Pacio vs. Brooks on December 3 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.

Speaking with South China Morning Post, Brooks said he’s not worried that their fight will suffer another postponement and that both he and Pacio are primed for a massive clash.

Pacio’s world title defense against Brooks was initially set for ONE 158 this past June, but the match was postponed following scheduling conflicts. Now that their world title match will be held in Manila, Brooks said he’s confident that things will go to plan, and all that’s left to do is square up:

“No, this is in Manila. This is his home country, there are no excuses -- no excuses from either side. So he has months to train for this camp. He's had almost a year to train for me. He [always] knew that he was going against me in the first place. So he's had about a year to get ready for me. And I've been training for this my whole life. So I think that I’ve made steps and did things that I've done that he hasn’t.”

The no.1-ranked strawweight contender is riding a three-fight winning streak, with two of those wins ending in a submission. His debut in the promotion was a second-round submission victory over Pacio’s Team Lakay teammate Lito Adiwang at ONE: NextGen III in November 2021.

After dispatching Hiroba Minowa in his second fight, Brooks submitted Bokang Masunyane in the first round of their match at ONE 156 this past April. Pacio, meanwhile, is on a four-fight winning streak. His last win inside the circle witnessed the complete annihilation of rival Yosuke Saruta at ONE: Revolution in September 2021.

Watch the full interview below:

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Jarred Brooks says Pacio doesn’t deserve the world title

Jarred Brooks was never shy whenever he talked trash about Pacio, and he was certainly brash about how the Filipino star got hold of the ONE strawweight world title. In the same SCMP interview, Brooks mocked Pacio and said that the strawweight king hadn’t fought anyone on his level.

Jarred Brooks added that he’d faced tougher competition than Pacio ever had in his career:

“Josh, ‘Oh my gosh, how did he get here?’ I beat better people [in one year] than you have in your whole career. So I think that he's not going to be prepared for this style and the way that I'm going to bring it. Different fighters bring different opportunities and different kinds of styles that will be brought out of me. I'm super excited to fight Josh. He's a smarter Lito Adiwang, let's just say that,” said Jarred Brooks.