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Lito Adiwang has risen up the ONE Championship strawweight rankings and is now set to do battle with Jarred Brooks in ONE: NextGen III in December. Both fighters were slated to fight back in September, but Adiwang tested positive for COVID-19 which postponed the match.
Both fighters have been exchanging barbs with Brooks on social media. The American fighter has been bragging that he will be dominating the division prior to making his first fight in the organization.
Known as the 'Monkey God', Brooks' words have already reached the Filipino fighter who will look to silence him in their upcoming fight:
"I am ready to humble him and show him that the lions in this division eat monkeys like him for breakfast," said Adiwang.
After losing to Koha Minowa, Adiwang won back-to-back matches to get in the Top 5 rankings in the strawweight division. His most recent match was against Getu Hexi which came soon after his match with Brooks got canceled. The fight went the full three rounds with Adiwang earning the nods of all the judges.
Canceled ONE matchup an advantage for Adiwang
It was supposed to be Brooks' debut match in ONE Championship but that has to wait until December. Adiwang turned lemons into lemonade and took more time studying his next opponent's fighting tendencies:
"The cancelation of our original match, I think, is also a blessing in disguise as it gave me more time to study his style and check on his strengths and weaknesses. With those in mind, I think I can accomplish my goals when I fight him and that is to humble him inside the ONE Circle," Adiwang said.
Brooks is no pushover as this 28-year-old is still in his prime. He has fought in several fight organizations, including Bellator, Rizin and the UFC.
He has a 16-2 professional MMA record and both of his losses happened in the UFC. One of the losses was a close, split decision battle with former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo.
