After months of anticiption, Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks finally met Lito “Thunder Kid” Adiwang inside the ONE Circle, and the encoutner was everything the American said it would be.
Brooks dominated their co-main event fight, walking away with an impressive second-round submission victory of the #5-ranked strawweight at ONE: NEXTGEN III on Friday, inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“The Monkey God” attacked early as he shot for a double-leg takedown, scooped Adiwang, and earthslammed him into the canvas. Brooks landed on top and smothered the Filipino, who struggled to move under the wrestling giant.
Adiwang eventually broke free and rose to his feet. From there, he connected with a hook, then landed another uppercut, hook combination as the round ended.
“Thunder Kid” couldn’t muster up any more attacks though, as Brooks poured it on the second round.
Like clockwork, Brooks dragged Adiwang back down and kept him there. Then, the Mash Fight Team representative lived up to his moniker by jumping onto Adiwang’s back where he searched for a guillotine.
Adiwang wriggled free from the choke attempt and they ended up in the clinch. However, the Filipino landed an unintentional knee to the groin, forcing the referee to call a recovery time out.
At the restart, Brooks decided seal the deal.
The 28-year-old changed levels for a double-leg before breezily mounting Adiwang. From there, Brooks locked in an arm triangle, transitioned to side control, and forced the tap with 1:55 left in the second round.
The win signified Brooks’ arrival in the strawweight division and may have earned him a spot in the top-five rankings. Moreover, from the looks of it, Adiwang’s teammate in ONE Strawweight World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio should take note.
Like Adiwang, fellow Filipino and former top strawweight contender Rene “The Challenger” Catalan met a hurdle, this one in the form of longtime rival Alex “Little Rock” Silva.
Their rematch unfolded exactly as their first encounter had in 2013, when the former ONE Strawweight World Champion submitted Catalan by first-round armbar.
However, Catalan had his moments this time around, powering out of a north-south choke to land in side control, but that only gave Silva his opening. “Little Rock” grabbed Catalan’s arm to score another armbar victory with 1:23 remaining in the first round.
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