ONE Championship: Jarred Brooks believes Lito Adiwang is a better challenge than Joshua Pacio

Lito Adiwang is set to fight Jarred Brooks in ONE: NextGen III
Lito Adiwang is set to fight Jarred Brooks in ONE: NextGen III

Jarred Brooks has yet to fight in ONE Championship but he has already started stirring the pot.

In his latest statement, he suggested his upcoming opponent Lito Adiwang is better than reigning strawweight champion Joshua Pacio.

The American believes that him and Adiwang are the best competitors in the ONE Championship strawweight division. Brooks also didn't hesitate to draw comparisons between Pacio and his fellow Team Lakay fighter.

"It’s a game of inches and Lito and Josh are great on the feet, but I think Lito is a little bit better on the feet than Josh is. And as far as the jiu-jitsu and the wrestling aspect, it seems that Lito is catching up fairly quickly compared to Josh."

Prior to joining the ONE Championship roster, Brooks fought in top MMA organizations such as Bellator, Rizin, WXC and the UFC. He owns a professional MMA record of 16-2 and has not experienced a loss in his last four bouts.


Brooks discusses his ONE debut against Adiwang

'The Monkey God' was supposed to make his ONE Championship debut earlier this year. However, his scheduled first outing was postponed.

Brooks is now set to fight Adiwang on November 26 at ONE: NextGen III. The event will take place inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium

Both fighters have been going back-and-forth on social media ahead of their clash. Despite that, Brooks has a lot of respect for his upcoming opponent. He sees Adiwang as more than a top-five contender in the strawweight division and believes he should be recognized as one of the top fighters in the weight class.

"Lito has been [treating himself] as gatekeeper, but he shouldn’t be. I feel bad for him that he has to deal with that. Going to the top five and facing people ranked lower, that does suck cause he’s better than the top five. Maybe he should talk to his management about that, but it does suck for Lito going against these really tough guys coming in."

Adiwang has won his last two matches in ONE Championship against Namiki Kawahara and Getu Hexi. Those victories pushed him into the strawweight top five.

The winner of this match will move up the rankings and will probably be lined up for a title fight soon after. Stablemates Pacio and Adiwang are unlikely to fight each other but Brooks would definitely be a good challenge for the current champion.

Quick Links

Edited by Harvey Leonard