When Reece Mclaren said Jarred Brooks didn’t deserve his shot against Demetrious Johnson, the ONE Championship interim strawweight King hit back.
The American brawler explained why he’s done more than enough to earn a clash with ‘Mighty Mouse’ as well as taking his opportunity to fire a few shots in his opponent’s direction.
Jarred Brooks tells Reece McLaren he’s ‘driving the bus’ following Demetrious Johnson back-and-forth
On December 6, inside Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, Jarred Brooks will finally have his opportunity to settle his differences with Reece McLaren once and for all.
The interim strawweight champion is stepping up to the flyweight division as he attempts to start his journey towards a belt in a second weight category.
Throughout his career, Brooks has wanted nothing more than to have the chance to test himself against the recently-retired, Demetrious Johnson, which McLaren has utilized in his attempts to goad his rival.
However, ‘The Monkey God’ doesn’t take disrespect lying down, telling his nemesis that he’s in for a ‘world of hurt’.
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In an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, the 31-year-old, said: “I just wanted to fight Demetrious Johnson at the end of the day. That’s on my bucket list. Reece was just throwing it off; he was like, ‘This guy doesn’t deserve to come in here out of the blue [and fight DJ]’.
“People don’t realize, I went against Deiveson Figueiredo and the best flyweights in the world, and I’ve done very well against them. So, I think I do deserve that spot against Demetrious Johnson. He’s one of the greats, and I’m one of the greats at strawweight.
“Reece told me to get in the back of the bus, so, I told him, ‘I’m driving the bus, I’m the person calling the shots, not you’.
“I’m the boss at the end of the day; I’m telling him what to do. He messaged me and was like, ‘I know that I talk a lot of s**t, but your name came up on my plate, I respect your fighting skills’.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, accept the fight’. And he did, thankfully. It took him a little bit of talking to because he has to make the weight because he’s a big flyweight.
“There’s no bad blood that I have for Reece, but he’s digging himself a bigger hole at the end of the day when he’s talking like that.
“He has things to worry about, I don’t. I’m going up a weight class, and if I win the fight, I get to go up against the best in the world — Adriano Moraes.
“His view is, ‘I get beat by this strawweight, I’m done’.
“People will realize when I fight Adriano Moraes, that I am the best flyweight in the world. I believe in myself to that full capability.
“If Reece McLaren thinks he can talk like that to me — he’s in for a world of hurt. I’m not afraid to say it. I talked s**t to Mikey Musumeci. I’m not afraid of anybody.
“That’s been my life since I was six or seven; I’ve been watching UFC. My dad put me in the sport and taught me to be confident and not care what people think.”
Jarred Brooks says fighting Demetrious Johnson goes ‘beyond his imagination’
While ‘Mighty Mouse’ has walked away from MMA, Brooks will always wonder what it would be like to share the cage with the legend.
He enthused: “Demetrious Johnson is one of the best in the world. To go into that fight and think you’re just going to beat him, ‘No man’.
“It’s going to be a way tougher fight than I could ever imagine. This goes beyond my imagination. But at the same time, I want to find out.
“How do you know where you stand if you don’t find out? And if you do lose, you’re like, ‘I was right there, what do I have to change in that little moment to get my return’?
“That’s all that matters. That’s all I was looking for. It’s not, ‘Hey, I wanna prove that I’m better than Demetrious Johnson’. It’s not that I want to prove that Demetrious is less than me or anything like that.
“It was, ‘Where am I? Who am I as a mixed martial artist’? To beat Demetrious Johnson, that would give me an answer to who I am as a mixed martial artist’.
“There’s been a lot of unanswered questions in my career, and that would have helped answer them. But at the same time, God gives you different paths and landscapes you have to climb, and I’m not afraid to climb those landscapes to find the other side.”
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