ONE Strawweight World Champion Jarred Brooks will have his eyes on one match in particular at ONE Fight Night 11: Eersel vs. Menshikov on Prime Video.
The American standout thinks the battle between rising strawweight stars Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado and Mansur Malachiev on Friday, June 9, could see the winner crack the division’s top five.
The ONE veteran in Miado has won four bouts in a row, all inside the distance, but he’ll have his hands full when he welcomes unbeaten grappler Malachiev to the ring at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Russian is a two-division Eagle FC Champion who holds a 10-0 record with eight finishes – mostly submissions – and Brooks thinks it’s quite obvious how both men will want the fight to play out.
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“The Monkey God” said:
“Mansur is probably going to try and take him down as soon as possible. He’s your typical Dagestani type of fighter. He tries to just clog your legs and punch.
“If it’s on the feet, Jeremy is very technical and he throws very fast. If you’re a straight-on fighter, you’re [going to have a hard time]. But if you have angles, then yeah, you can do a lot of things to Jeremy Miado.”
While the American star has his views on the contest, he isn’t committing himself to picking a result. In fact, he’d be happy to defend his gold against either man in the near future.
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Brooks believes he has the arsenal to beat both challengers convincingly, whether he faces the lifelong wrestler in Malachiev or the top-level striker and KO artist in Miado.
He said:
“How will they do against me? Mansur, I think he would try to take me down quick and try to establish that wrestling dominance. He doesn’t realize I’m a dog, and he has never faced anybody that’s a dog. He’s been up against these jiu-jitsu guys, whom he can just get on top of and stomp while they’re trying to do arm bars and knee bars and stuff like that.
“If I get Jeremy Miado, I’ll take him to deep waters, get him to a front headlock, and knee his head off. While he has a fast jab, I have fast counters as well. If you didn’t see that against Joshua Pacio, anytime that he tried to throw something on me, I hit him two to three times.”
Jarred Brooks Sees Keito Yamakita As Potential Next Threat To His Crown
Since Jarred Brooks won the ONE Strawweight World Title with a victory over Joshua Pacio last December, a lot has happened in the division.
Top contenders have won and lost and rising stars have emerged – with one in particular standing out to “The Monkey God.”
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The American thinks Keito Yamakita looks like a solid talent in the strawweight ranks who could potentially earn a shot at his World Title in the future.
Brooks said:
“I think Yamakita is somebody that can beat a lot of people. He has a gas tank, and that’s all you need. He obliterated Alex Silva in my personal opinion. He beat the crap out of him. He has good jiu-jitsu defense, but he’s small. I mean, I’m a small guy myself, but I feel like my strength overplays my division.
“It all matters if Mansur beats Miado, that’s who gets into the top five. I think Yamakita will probably fight the winner of that, and then [that will decide who ONE] wants to put up against me.”
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However things shake out, Brooks is proud to be at the top of an exciting division that contains the most elite roster in the world.
With his skills and hype-building talk leading the way, he knows that the strawweight ranks will continue to draw more interest across the globe as new fans see just how exciting their battles can be.
Brooks said:
“I think the division is very interesting. We have a lot of talented, pocket-rocket, crazy mofos in this division.
“And they can watch one of the most marketable fighters in the world, Jarred Brooks, ‘The Monkey God.’ I come through and put on a show every time, inside and outside the Circle.”
