Jarred Brooks takes on Lito Adiwang at ONE: ‘NextGen’ Part II. The UFC and Rizin veteran is extremely confident heading into his long awaited promotional debut.
The American had a simple message for the other strawweights,
“I’m the best in the division period.”
Team America
Having already shared an exchange with Joshua Pacio the rivalry between Brooks and Team Lakay is heating up. The American is adamant he has what it takes to beat both the champion and his teammate Adiwang but has plenty of respect for both men,
“A team like Lakay has have been doing it for a long time. I wouldn’t say the Philippines are necessarily behind in MMA but I would say my MMA will prove that nowhere in the world you will find all styles and all arts mutually practiced to make a champion like America has.”
Pacio described Brooks as the weakest of the contenders at strawweight and the American would like to make him eat his words,
“If the promotion wants it I would be more than happy to prove Joshua wrong, to prove that I am the top contender for his for now belt.”
Mixing it up
Brooks says he has really been looking to put the ‘mixed’ in mixed martial arts with his training,
“I train at various places in Michigan at various gyms that are particular to a certain martial art. Then my home base is at my coaches James Lee’s Mash fight team. I have world champions to work out with in kickboxing, jiu jitsu and boxing as well as MMA superstars.”
He admits that it was very frustrating to have to wait such a long time to fight Adwiang,
“The first fight fell through over Covid complications with the coaches then Lito and then I followed after. So we tried booking the fight three times in three weeks, let’s just say it was a hard April.”
Exciting fights
While he believes he can beat Adiwang, and Pacio for that matter, there is clearly a certain level of respect. Brooks is expecting a challenge when he faces the former next month,
“Adiwang is a great striker has good kicking range, the power is there also. I wouldn’t be in ONE if I wasn’t looking for fun exiting fights that bring the best out of me and Adiwang will bring it out for sure. I’m just exited that I can have the opportunity of beating one of ONE’s superstars in my first outing !”
The year hasn’t quite panned out the way Brooks hope it would with multiple Covid-19 related fight cancellations. But he will be looking to end it on a high by beating a top contender on his promotional debut.
