ONE Fight Night 24: Jarred Brooks captures interim strawweight title in Bangkok

Former ONE strawweight champion Jarred Brooks put his title heartbreak behind him as he delivered a superb bounceback performance to defeat Gustavo Balart and capture the interim title in Bangkok, Thailand.

Brooks and Balart faced off in the main event of ONE Fight Night 24 at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, where Brooks turned to his top-level wrestling and ground game to earn himself a first-round finish.

Brooks made his intentions clear in the opening seconds with an early takedown attempt, and he kept those attempts coming throughout the round as he refused to let the former Cuban Olympic wrestler a moment’s respite.

Eventually, Brooks managed to land a takedown, and “The Monkey God” went to work. The former champion moved to Balart’s back, established position,, then locked up a tight rear-naked choke to force Balart to tap with just 21 seconds left in the round.

It gave Brooks a huge bounceback win, as he rebounded from his disqualification loss to Joshua Pacio that saw him lose his title to the Filipino star. Now a return meeting with Pacio looks certain, with the pair looking likely to face off for the third time in a title unification battle later this year.

In the co-main event, Mayssa Bastos dethroned American Danielle Kelly to capture the ONE atomweight submission grappling title. The pair battled back and forth for the full duration of the match, with Bastos earning the unanimous decision nod from the judges to capture the title.

The night also saw three eye-catching knockouts. Kickboxing ace Elias Mahmoudi stunned Taiki Naito with a spinning backfist in their flyweight kickboxing clash, while Aliff stopped Zakaria El Jamari with a vicious body-shot KO in thier 132.75-pound catchweight Muay Thai matchup.

But the fastest finish of the night came in the first first bout on the card, as Scotland’s Amy Pirnie announced her return to to action after three years away and claimed a stunning one-shot KO of Yu Yau Pui to extend her winning streak to 22 fights.