“The Monkey God” is a name synonymous with a war-worn veteran shaped by the crucible of combat. Jared Brooks, the reigning ONE Championship strawweight titleholder, was tempered in the rugged, uncompromising environment of the wrestling gym. Brooks valued the significance of sweat equity at a very young age, and those lessons translated to the competitive wrestling mats as he became one of the nation’s top scholastic wrestlers during high school, securing a perfect record and a 2012 Indiana state championship in his senior year.
He then sought an avenue to challenge his remarkable athletic talent. The American harnessed the hard-nosed approach to mixed martial arts training and sealed a one-way trip to testing himself against the best in the sport.