Jarred Brooks is fired up for his upcoming fight with the debuting Jose Torres this Friday night at UFC Utica

As if it wasn’t obvious enough, being a professional fighter is a difficult job. UFC flyweight Jarred Brooks knows this firsthand

For months at a time, fighters prepare for opponents that are assigned to them. Hard work gets put in, sacrifices are made and then all of a sudden, the opponent gets injured and has to withdraw. That is what happened with Brooks.

Brooks was scheduled to face Hector Sandoval this Friday night, but a back injury has forced Sandoval out of the fight. “The Monkey God” will now welcome the highly touted Jose Torres to the Octagon at UFC Utica. The fight, which has seemingly been in the making for almost a year now, will open up the UFC Fight Pass preliminary card at the Adirondack Back Center in Utica, NY.

Torres had an incredible 25-1 amateur run, which included multiple world championships before turning pro. “Shorty” has gone 7-0 in his professional career, including capturing, simultaneously, the Titan FC flyweight and bantamweight titles. The push for Torres to get signed by the UFC was a strong one from fans, media members, and fellow fighters. Now that it has happened, Brooks feels like he isn’t getting the credit he deserves for remaining on the card.

“I don’t really think about too much. Just the person in front of me,” Brooks told FanSided MMA. “Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres is the person in front of me right now. I think that I’m not getting respected for taking this fight on such short notice. This dude is a very good opponent. He’s somebody that’s a name that has been established outside of the UFC — such as myself — but at the same time, if you look at when myself and Ian McCall were going to fight, Ian was respected for taking the fight with me. It was a hard draw for him and he was respected. I’m not getting respected enough for taking a pretty hard fight on super short notice.

“He’s not completely prepared. He thinks I’m somebody he can beat on a 10-day notice. That’s just stupid. It’s stupid.”

“Do I think that Jose is in trouble on Friday? F**k yeah he’s in trouble. I think that I need to get respected a little bit more. This dude is getting too much respect taking this fight, and I understand that he’s going against a killer, a guy that wants to beat his head in as much as he wants to beat in mine. Respect me a little bit more. All of these fans, they’re just d**k riders and it makes me sick. It makes me sick what fighting is turning into. It’s all about the name. I guarantee you that in two or three fights, he’s going to be in the same situation. Even after he gets beaten, he’s going to have people disrespect him even though he’s a future contender. This is how the fight game has gotten — because of names. People like Conor McGregor. That’s all people give a f**k about is names.”

Brooks got signed to the UFC in February 2017 to face Ian McCall on short notice at UFC 208. After McCall was hospitalized following his weight cut, the fight never happened. Brooks would make his Octagon debut against Eric Shelton at July’s UFC 214 event, picking up a decision victory over before suffering the first loss of his career, a highly controversial split-decision to Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Fight Night 118.

Despite having two fights inside of the Octagon, and double the professional experience of Torres, Brooks feels like he is the forgotten, and disrespected piece to the flyweight puzzle heading into the UFC’s debut in Utica.

“Do I think that Jose is in trouble on Friday? F–k yeah, he’s in trouble. I think that I need to get respected a little bit more.”

“They’re just paying attention to him and I understand that,” Brooks said. “He’s making his UFC debut and it’s long-awaited. He deserves to be in the UFC, even at 7-0. But let’s really look at it. Who has he actually fought? He’s fought Farkhat Sharipov, and there’s a lot of people outside of the UFC who can beat that dude. Gledison DeJesus, there’s a lot of people outside of the UFC who have beaten him. I’m not tooting my own horn or anything, but he’s never fought someone that is UFC quality. You got Pedro Nobre, but that dude is 33, 34 years old and he was on his way out anyway.

“I’ve been paying a lot of attention to ‘Shorty’ — not as much to the fans — but I can’t help but notice getting tagged in s**t with people calling me ‘Monkey B***h and things like that. Dude, do you know who the f**k I am? One, I will give you my f*****g address and beat the living f**k out of anybody who calls me that s**t. Jose has been pretty quiet, more than I thought he would be because he talked so much s**t to try to get the fight. That’s what I’m trying to get out of him. I’m trying to draw it out to make this a little more interesting. But people are just paying attention to him.”

When reports were surfacing all over the MMA world that the proposed matchup between Brooks and Torres was a “done deal”, the reality was the fight was still in the works. One of those potential hurdles was Torres’ ability to cut to 125-pounds in such a short window — especially with the fact that Torres was rumored to be fighting for a third Titan FC title, at featherweight.

“He has a lot of weight to cut in a little amount of time,” Brooks said. “As far as I know, he was supposed to fight for the 145-pound title in Titan FC. He’s extremely heavy and it plays to my advantage. I’m fine with that. He actually denied the fight at first and then he talked to his managers. They said that they could get the weight down so he said yes.

“We talked to Mick (Maynard) about the weight. If he misses weight, he’s gonna be in trouble. He’s gonna be in trouble with the UFC for taking this fight on a 10-day notice and not being prepared. He’s not completely prepared. He thinks I’m somebody he can beat on a 10-day notice. That’s just stupid. It’s stupid.”

One of the things that gets Brooks amped up for Friday night is that we have not seen the full potential in the Octagon of the Warsaw, Indiana-born fighter. He is well aware of Torres’ accolades and respects all of them. The confidence “Shorty” carries has Brooks taking notice.

“He seems pretty confident taking on a guy that is of UFC caliber, that is at fast as me, as agile and as strong as me,” Brooks explained. “He’s overlooking me. That’s what got me so excited about the Ian McCall fight because nobody knew who I was and Ian had no idea who I was. I love when people are overlooking me and trying to overshadow me. I’m going to come out in that first round and I’m going to bring a pace — and he says that I get tired in the second round. Look at my opponents! They are twice as tired as me going into second round. He has never seen a pace like mine, that hard coming at you.”

While feeling overlooked and disrespected, Brooks understands that this fight coming together for Friday night may not be completely ideal with the circumstances surrounding it, but it will be an opportunity to get some new eyes on him. In a recent interview, Torres said he was excited to make his debut in the UFC, but not as much for the opponent. Brooks couldn’t feel more differently.

“He seems pretty confident taking on a guy that is of UFC caliber, that is at fast as me, as agile and as strong as me.”

“I’m excited about this fight. He’s telling people that he’s not excited about this fight? He was looking for this fight. He asked for this fight. He says it’s going to be a highlight reel. At the same time, he knows that I’m the one that can get him to that higher echelon, whether he wins or loses. I don’t want to hear that s**t that he’s not excited about this fight. I’m excited about this draw and this fight. He’s a tough opponent, he brings the ruckus every fight and he’s going to bring the best out of me. That’s what gets me excited. He’s overlooking me and I love that s**t.

“Jose is a tougher draw (than Sandoval), but it also means that more eyes are going to be watching me.”

In a sport where predictions create headlines, Jarred Brooks says he will not be an “MMA messiah” when it comes to Friday night’s bout with Jose Torres. In Brooks’ mind, he is still 14-0 despite the controversial decision in October. He is predicting the fight ending with his hand raised, and also that Torres will have another future bout on his hands, with mental adversity.

“Jose Torres, he is someone who has a big chip on his shoulder and I think a loss on his record will f**k him up,” Brooks said. “We’re going to see how the cards play out on Friday. My plan is to give him that first loss. I’m not saying a choke out, a knockout, a decision, I’m not saying s**t. I’m getting the W and he’s going take his first loss in the UFC.”