Jarred Brooks says he wasn’t aware of the severity of inadvertent head spike on Joshua Pacio: “That was really bad’

Former ONE strawweight MMA world champion ‘The Monkey God’ Jarred Brooks of the United States says he was initially unaware of how badly opponent Joshua Pacio landed on his head after an inadvertent head spike ended their world title rematch.

Brooks locked horns with Pacio at ONE 166: Qatar, ONE Championship’s historic return to the Middle East, which took place at the Lusail Sports Arena on March 1st. Early in the first round, ‘The Monkey God’ took Pacio’s back and slammed him on the ground.

Unfortunately, Brooks made a technical error and Pacio landed on his head – an illegal spike under ONE Championship’s global MMA rule set. Under these rules, slams on the head, neck, or spine are prohibited.

Speaking to YouTube channel, The MMA Superfan, Brooks admits he was only able to fully grasp what had happened on the way back to the hotel.

‘The Monkey God’ said:

“Right after Herb [Dean] told me and I looked at the replay I didn’t realize the severity of what it was. I looked at the replay and I slowed it down on the van on the way to the hotel. I was like, ‘Damn that was really bad’.”

As a result, Brooks was disqualified, and Pacio was crowned the new champion – a bitter end to what was a highly anticipated fight.

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Jarred Brooks says head spike was not intentional: “I don’t want people in the world to think I’m a dirty fighter”

Jarred Brooks wants to clear the air and says he had no intention of slamming Joshua Pacio on the head, despite things turning out that way.

‘The Monkey God’ told The MMA Superfan:

“It wasn’t anything that I wanted to do to Joshua. We are going out there to potentially kill one another but I’m not gonna sit there and take a man’s career and a man’s life, anything like that. I don’t want people in the world to think I’m a dirty fighter either. I’ve had 42 fights and that’s happened one time.”