Many were put on guard for an April Fool’s Day joke when Jarred Brooks posted in his Instagram account early last week that he will be back in The Circle against Bokang Masunyane for a title eliminator match. Turns out he wasn’t playing around as ONE Championship eventually confirmed the match to be real.
The top contenders of the strawweight division are set to slug it out for a championship bout against reigning champion Joshua Pacio, the lone Team Lakay and Filipino title holder in the promotion.
The bout will happen during ONE: Eersel vs. Sadikovic, which will air live on Friday, April 22, 2022.
As usual, Brooks literally let his mouth do some trash-talking again, although he has been backing them up so far.
He spews insults once more to his opponents whom he thinks are inferior to him.
He again emphasize how lower rank fighters are better than Pacio and is campaigning hard for a shot at him, highlighting how badly he wants the ONE Strawweight title.
The 27-year old Masunyane has been a perfect 8-0 in his mixed martial arts career but has been inactive for one year and five months.
He recorded two victories in ONE, a unanimous decision against Ryuto Sawada on December 2019 and a knockout by kick to the head of then #3 contender Rene Catalan on December 2020.
On the other hand, the 28-year old Brooks has stolen the limelight over the #1 contender while he was away from The Circle.
His constant trashtalking towards Pacio, his reputation as a previous UFC fighter, combined with an arm triangle submission of #5 contender Lito Adiwang on October, 2021 and a unanimous decision win over #4 contender Hiroba Minowa on January 2022 put him to be noticed by the ONE fandom.
The #2 contender’s never-ending strategy of dissing his rivals again reared its ugly head.
First, on Masunyane.
“The Monkey God” described Masunyane his toughest matchup in the division and pictured him better than Pacio, just like what he said of Adiwang and Minowa.
“If Bokang wants to fight Pacio, then I think Bokang would beat him. But I think that Pacio has his hands full in the strawweight division now, period,” Brooks told ONE in an interview.
Then, he quickly turned 180 degrees by saying Masunyane hasn’t have any chance of beating him.
“I think that he’s a tough guy, don’t get me wrong. I do see him breaking on the feet and wanting to shoot and go for takedowns. He’s going to have a really, really tough time taking me down. And if he does, I’m going to spring right back up to my feet. And he’s not going to hold on to my back like he does to all these other people. I think that I’m the best in the division, no matter what. I mean, you got to go out and prove things. But inside of my head and the way I see fight night, I do see my hand getting raised in a spectacular fashion,” said Brooks.
He also questioned the level of competition Masunyane has faced.
“Unfortunately, he hasn’t really gone against anybody. And they put him in front of me, I think that I have faced way better opponents,” exclaimed Brooks. “Don’t get me wrong, Bokang knocked out Rene Catalan and in fashion, but Rene is like 43 years old, and he’s on his way out.”
Meanwhile, the thrash-talk on Pacio just got a notch up. Brooks, using a Filipino derogatory word, described the Cordilleran champion a “pussy”.
Pacio has not responded yet, however, an interview with South China Morning Post in February displayed Pacio as the cool guy who steers clear of the trash-talk his opponents like Brooks threads.
“I’m not annoyed with him. I understand what he’s doing. I understand the business side of this sport. I think he’s trying to get in my head,” Pacio said then. “But no man, that’s your thing. Do your thing, and this is mine. I can’t do trashtalking because this is my personality.”
“I’m setting an example for the next generation here in my country. It’s all about the core values of martial arts,” he added. “So just do his thing, whatever he wants.”
By Armando M. Bolislis
