There’s really nothing off limits for Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks when it comes to psywar and this time, he’s dedicating his upcoming rematch against Joshua “The Passion” Pacio at ONE 166: Qatar at Lusail Sports Arena on March 1 to a familiar figure.
To the brash American, this fight is for Pacio’s former coach and Team Lakay founder Mark Sangiao.
“Mark Sangiao, this is for you and your son, man. I’ve seen you guys over in Bangkok and you guys are awesome people,” he said ahead of his ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship defense.
Brooks pulled no punches in his observation of Pacio’s preparations in the leadup to this clash, stating that he feels the Filipino challenger has downgraded since leaving the famed Baguio stable.
“I feel like they aren’t working the same. They’re half-assing their workouts and they’re doing things like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna hop over each other and we’re gonna do army crawls underneath each other.’ That’s the stuff I did in third grade. It’s not a great workout for me,” he said.
Compare that to the workouts that Brooks has put himself through, saying, “Mine are balls to the walls, grimy, nasty in your face, kind of workouts.”
But more than anything, Brooks feels that familiarity is just not on the side of Pacio even with Eduard “Landslide” Folayang guiding him in Lions Nation MMA.
“Eduard Folayang does not know Joshua Pacio like the back of his hand like Mark does. So I think that’s gonna play a key factor into this matchup as well,” he stated.
As confident as ever, Brooks was blunt on his prediction for this rematch.
“I will shut you up every day, all day. I have nothing but respect for you. After the [first] fight, I felt really bad when you were peeing blood and you had all those lip scars, you were pretty messed up,” he said.
“But now it’s time to kill you. I’ve gotta go out and kill you, brother, and I am 100-percent going to finish you this time.”