Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks is determined to be the best strawweight mixed martial artist the world has ever seen.
Born and bred in Indiana, Brooks grew up in hard-nosed wrestling rooms, learning at an early age the value of tough – and often grueling – training. To that end, he became one of the nation’s top scholastic wrestlers during high school, securing a perfect record and a 2012 Indiana State Wrestling Championship in his senior year.
After graduation, Brooks needed an outlet for his prodigious athletic abilities and quickly found MMA. By the age of 20, he was competing in amateur bouts, and at 21, knowing he had found his calling, he made his professional MMA debut.
The American leaned heavily on his top-tier wrestling and natural aggression to reel off 12 straight victories to start his career. During this time, he earned “The Monkey God” moniker for his ape-like strength, seemingly inhuman grappling ability, and destructive top game.
Before long, Brooks was showcasing his fan-friendly style of fighting to larger and larger audiences, competing against world-class fighters in some of the sport’s biggest organizations.
By 2021, the Mash Fight Team product’s explosive takedowns and penchant for finding submissions caught the eye of ONE Championship. Brooks signed with the world’s largest martial arts organization and set his sights on the loaded strawweight division.
Though he claimed the ONE Strawweight MMA World Title from Joshua Pacio in December 2022, Brooks was forced to surrender the gold back to the Filipino after executing an illegal slam in their rematch in March 2024.
A torn ACL would put Pacio on the shelf soon thereafter, allowing the American to compete for the interim belt. In August 2024, he claimed the ONE Interim Strawweight MMA World Championship by forcing top-five contender Gustavo Balart to tap out via rear-naked choke.
