After years of heated back-and-forth exchanges online, former ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks will finally get to throw down with Russian rival Mansur Malachiev in the ONE Championship ring.

The pair’s fiery feud will reach a tipping point when they collide in a flyweight MMA showdown at ONE Fight Night 36: Prajanchai vs. Di Bella II, which takes place inside Bangkok’s legendary Lumpinee Stadium on Friday, October 3, live in U.S. primetime.

What began as light ribbing between two elite grapplers has escalated into something far more personal, with Brooks preaching American wrestling superiority while Malachiev insists on Dagestani dominance.

That competitive banter quickly transformed into venomous personal attacks across social media and interviews, eventually spilling over into threatening direct messages.

Brooks reveals just how deep Malachiev’s psychological warfare runs:

“The past year and a half, this guy’s been sending me direct messages. He doesn’t really understand English that much, but he’s just trying to get into my head. His whole team has been sending me messages and all that stuff.

“I did mock his style a lot, though. His style is kind of whack. He walks like a zombie, coming forward with his hands up. I’m not saying that the guy isn’t good. He has the typical Dagestani style with dangerous spinning back kicks, and he has a dangerous hook.”

Despite acknowledging Malachiev’s dangerous weapons, Brooks enters this grudge match supremely confident. The #1-ranked strawweight MMA contender has spent countless hours studying his #2-ranked rival, identifying crucial weaknesses he plans to exploit from the opening bell.

“The Monkey God” believes Malachiev’s overly cautious approach creates glaring openings:

“I think that when pressure is being displayed upon him, he waits his turn, and I think that’s where I can take advantage of a lot of the fight. There are a lot of times where, after he gets hit, he wants to shoot, and that just shows me that he’s one of those guys who’s not willing to trade until the last minute and a half of a fight.

“He leaves his neck out because he is very ‘guillotinable’. He likes to tire his opponents out by letting them push forward and try to finish at a pace that he’s used to. But I’m gonna bring a twister full of fists and come at him a million miles an hour, like the old Monkey God that everybody is used to seeing.”

This fight offers much-needed redemption for Brooks after back-to-back defeats shattered his momentum in the world’s largest martial arts organization. The 32-year-old will move up for his second fight at flyweight, and he views this as a fresh start to silence doubters.

He continued: 

“So I’ve done a lot of thought, done a lot of recreation of what I think the fight is going to be like. But you guys are gonna see. I think that this is a good new start for me, and I think that Mansur is a good test.

“Life can sometimes get the best of you, and I want to be that guy who went back to the trenches and came back up and let that be a good story for somebody in the future to be inspired by.”

Brooks Stays Determined To Recapture Lost Gold

Jarred Brooks’ storied rivalry with undisputed ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio remains unfinished business. Their epic trilogy culminated in the Filipino’s stunning comeback victory that left Brooks devastated at ONE 171: Qatar this past February.

A victory over Mansur Malachiev could serve as the first step toward another shot at Pacio and the strawweight MMA gold:

“I did lose. That’s OK, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to come back. I’m a dog that gets bitten, and then I’m gonna bite you back three times as hard. So I’m not worried about what other people have to say, but at the end of the day, Joshua Pacio is still on my hit list.

“I know that he has something to prove. God willing, if he wants to, then I’m still here after this Mansur fight, and Mansur, he is a tough cookie to crumble, but I do think that I could crumble him.”

Pacio will attempt to become a two-division MMA World Champion when he takes on newly crowned flyweight MMA king Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu at ONE 173: Superbon vs. Noiri on November 16.

Brooks respects Pacio’s inherent greatness but he also refuses to let their rivalry die.

“The Monkey God” concluded:

“If I don’t ever get a chance to fight Pacio again, I’ll just prove it with somebody else until the stars match up again. I still have the same perception of Josh. He’s a great champion. I think that he leads his people well.

“But I’m coming back. I’m going out and I have something to prove, and when I have something to prove, I’m a dangerous person.”