Jarred Brooks admits he badly misjudged accidental spike against Joshua Pacio: “I wasn’t expecting for him to land like that”

Jarred Brooks continues to keep the record straight about what transpired during his world title rematch with Joshua Pacio on March 1 at ONE 166: Qatar card inside the Lusail Sports Arena.

Brooks reiterated that the spike he committed against Pacio was unintentional because he only wanted to counter the Kimura submission attempt that the latter was gunning for.

‘The ‘Monkey God’ further explained this during his appearance on The MMA Superfan’s YouTube channel, saying:

“When someone throws a kimura, I’m thinking lift them to scare them, right? And that’s really what it was. I thought he was going to land on his feet. When I train with anybody who’s pretty good at wrestling, they catch themselves on their feet. But I’ve been going with a lot of big guys lately, and it’s harder to take these guys down, and they end up landing on their feet.”

The former ONE strawweight MMA king is not dodging the blame for himself because he even admitted that he miscalculated the outcome of that slam as he continued:

“Joshua was a bit lighter than I expected, I’m not making any excuses at the end of the day. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting for him to land like that. That was insane. Looking back at that replay, I’m like, ‘Oh shit.’ I can’t even get that out of my head. For people to even think I’m doing this intentionally, to try and take somebody’s career away, that’s insane to me.”

Despite the anti-climactic finish to their championship showdown, Jarred Brooks was glad that ‘The Passion’ didn’t sustain any major injuries to his neck and spine, although the 31-year-old American received a disqualification loss that saw him give up the 26-pound golden belt to Pacio.

---

Jarred Brooks impressed with Joshua Pacio’s adjustments in their second meeting

Jarred Brooks was surprised by the refinement and evolution of Pacio’s skills, particularly in the grappling department because he could stop his takedown attempt and even willed his way into a Kimura submission attempt.

The Mash Fight Team athlete was also impressed with the faster kicks from the Baguio City native because, according to him, it was way faster compared to their first encounter in December 2022 at ONE 164.

North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE 166: Qatar via the free event replay.