Written by Interim ONE strawweight champion Jarred Brooks is set to move up to flyweight for his next fight scheduled against Reece McLaren at the upcoming ONE Fight Night 26 card, which is scheduled on Dec. 6 from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
ONE Championship officials confirmed the pairing to MMA Fighting on Thursday.
It’s an interesting move for Brooks after he held the ONE strawweight title but lost the belt following an illegal slam delivered to Joshua Pacio back in March. Rather than get an immediate rematch, Brooks ended claiming an interim strawweight title by taking out Gustavo Balart by rear naked choke in his next outing in August.
Now Brooks moves up to flyweight where ONE currently doesn’t have a champion following Demetrious Johnson announcing his retirement from the sport in September. He will still hold onto the ONE interim strawweight title.
Since moving to ONE Championship, Brooks has gone 5-1 overall with his only loss coming from that disqualification.
As for McLaren, the 33-year-old veteran is a mainstay in ONE dating back to 2015 when he made his debut for the promotion. A perennial contender throughout his career, McLaren has gone 3-1 in his past four fights with hopes that he can take out Brooks and potentially put his name in the hat to compete for the vacant flyweight title.
ONE Fight Night 26 goes down on Dec. 6 from Thailand with more fights expected to be announced in the coming weeks.