Jarred Brooks finds himself in unfamiliar territory at ONE Championship, coming off a string of defeats.

Brooks lost to Mikey Musumeci in a flyweight submission grappling world title fight a year ago, then lost his MMA strawweight title by disqualification in March.

“It’s not about championships for me — I lost money on that (DQ),” said Brooks, 31. “It took me one step back. Now I’m ready to take three steps forward.”

ONE Fight Night 24 on Prime Video takes place at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok and airs this Friday in primetime. The headliner is the Brooks-Gustavo Balart bout, with the vacant interim Strawweight MMA World Championship on the line.

Brooks dropped the undisputed title to Joshua Pacio in March. Just 56 seconds into the match, Brooks slammed Pacio head first into the canvas, resulting in the DQ.

An ACL injury sidelined Pacio, paving the way for an interim title shot. Balart, 37, is a former Olympic wrestler from Cuba. After losing his first three fights in ONE, he has won four.

“Gustavo Balart is a great opponent to show off different skills,” Brooks (20-3, 1 NC) said. “He’s nothing new to me. I understand him as a fighter. I don’t put any pressure on myself. This is a fight for survival. But I will never, ever look past Gustavo Balart. I see him as prey, but he’s still a predator in his own right.”

If he does get the interim belt, Brooks will await Pacio’s return for a title unification fight. That would be their third fight: Before the DQ finish in March, Brooks defeated Pacio by unanimous decision to win the strawweight title in December 2022.

“I don’t know how much weight loss his body can handle,” Brooks said. “He’s 145 on a good day. I walk around at 126 and after practice I’m at 124. I don’t wear myself out and that’s why I’m going to stay in this game for a while.”

Pacio is out for now, but Brooks plans to stay busy. At the top of his to-do list is his ONE American debut in Atlanta in November.

“After this fight, I would like to fight on the United States card in November,” Brooks said. “I want to show how important strawweights are to ONE Championship.”

Before he looks ahead, Brooks must first address his current opponent. Standing just 4’11”, Balart brings a unique skill set to the cage, but the 5’3” Brooks also brings a collegiate wrestling background and excels at the top position.

“We’re doing this for all the short kings,” Brooks said. “You see martial arts in a lot of different aspects. It’s two torpedoes coming at each other and setting off fireworks. We want to blow each other’s heads off.”