Jarred Brooks scored a convincing victory over Bokang Masunyane in their ONE strawweight title eliminator matchup at ONE 156 last month, and now his meeting with divisional kingpin Joshua Pacio is set, per a report by Sports Illustrated. ONE Championship has put the highly anticipated world championship battle as the headline event at ONE 158 on Friday, Jun. 3, and it’s guaranteed to be a barnburner.
Ever since Brooks stepped onto the global stage, his eyes have been firmly set on strawweight gold. “The Monkey God” called Pacio out immediately after defeating the longtime titleholder’s Team Lakay teammate Lito Adiwang in his ONE debut last November, and that was just the beginning.
Brooks returned to the ONE Circle two months later to score a unanimous decision victory over Hiroba Minowa, and, once again, the outspoken American star called for his title shot. With back-to-back wins in the bag, it began to look inevitable that he would eventually get his wish.
After his latest win over former top-ranked contender Bokang Masunyane, Brooks cemented his status as number-one in the division. Now, the fiery 29-year-old is ready to claim the title he believes is his.
“While I do think Joshua has some really great capabilities, I don’t think he has the same heart as me,” Brooks told SI. “My prediction is that I’m going to submit Pacio in the first or second round. I will be the next ONE strawweight world champion.”
The main event of ONE 158 wasn’t the only bout announced on Thursday by the promotion. Rising heavyweight talent Odie Delaney will return to the Circle for his second outing at the event, this time to take on Iran’s Mehdi Barghi, according to an MMAMania.com report.
Delaney had a dominant promotional debut against Thomas Narmo at ONE: Bad Blood, scoring a 66-second submission victory over the Norwegian. The American Top Team product will try to take the next step forward in a growing heavyweight division and put himself in the hunt for the division’s gold.
ONE 158 is heating up with these bout announcements, and it looks set to be a scorching way to kick off the summer months.