Bellator 237 Preview, Jarred Brooks vs. Haruo Ochi II: Mirrored Opposites
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
In the most significant fight on tonight’s Bellator 128 card, the biggest sub-125lb fight of the year between the #1 strawweight in the world Haruo Ochi and Fightmatrix’ former #1-ranked strawweight Jarred Brooks is occurring on the Japan-exclusive Bellator postlims.
Throughout my research, the interesting ways in which Brooks and Ochi’s careers have mirrored each other in different ways became apparent, and it made the evening’s matchup far more interesting.
Jarred Brooks vs. Haruo Ochi II
The biggest SW Fight of the Year originally occurred several months ago at RIZIN.18, however ended anticlimactically as an accidental head butt prematurely ended the match 10 seconds in. You can see the whole fight here.
Jarred Brooks—the best American straw weight ever—had (to the best of my knowledge) only his third SW fight against Ochi that night. His other fights, KOs against then-3rd-ranked SW shootist Junji Sarumaru & 2011 Shooto SW rookie champ and 7-0 Jun Nakamura, combined with his active resume at flyweight, led to Fightmatrix giving Brooks a no.1 ranking before he had moved on to the UFC’s 125lb division as a short-notice-replacement opponent for Ian Mccall in 2017. Though Mccall’s struggles with making flyweight (reportedly weighing ~150-lbs. in-cage for his fights, that kind of dehydration making injuries & illness far more easy to succumb to) never led to the Brooks fight materializing, Jarred made the best of his UFC experience, going 2-2 and exiting on a win & controversial release.
In Brooks’ most notable fight, he dueled top-five Deiveson Figureido to a highly-competitive split decision, showing many of the traits that have made Brooks such a deadly fighter.
A controversial stand-up at the end of the 1st round
Growing up in the American Midwest wrestling circuit, Brooks typifies the archetypal American wrestler-in-MMA. Much like contemporaries Joe Warren and Matt Hughes, Brooks uses the power his wide back reared through countless sessions double-legging, sprawling & underhooking hard-nosed and bored teenagers & young-adults in Indiana and Illinois and Wisconsin. His wrestling power is what he’s built his entire game around, and a favorite move of his is the double-leg-lift that UFC legend Matt Hughes built his title-run upon.
Jarred showing why he’s nicknamed “The Monkey God” against then-3rd-ranked SW Junji “Sarumaru” Ito
The main challenge that Brooks ran into in the UFC’s FLW division was of no surprise: at his biggest, he’s an average-sized flyweight. This was shown in his fight with Figureido, as once the massive fly learned how significant his massive 70“ wingspan is against the 63“ wingspan of Jarred, and how much his size advantage will help as the grapplers tire, he made full use of it.
Brooks’ experience in his first official loss was mirrored in the entire FLW career of Haruo Ochi. Standing equal to Brooks’ 5’3 and holding his own massive back, Ochi’s FLW career was spent against an on-average much higher-quality of opposition than Brooks’ was, as the Japanese scene in the lower weight divisions doesn’t lend itself to win-collecting as easily as even the American Midwest scene’s lower weight divisions do. Leading to relatively-mixed results compared to Brooks’ 11-2 record in the division. The names Ochi’s fought in the division compared to Brooks speak for themselves: Masakazu Imanari, Ryuichi Miki, Masaaki Sugawara, Kiyotaka Shimizu, Yoshiro Maeda, Tatsumitsu Wada.
A consistent theme in Ochi’s career at flyweight was his size disadvantage, as against an opponent like a FLW Yoshiro Maeda anybody would be. However, in no fight was this more apparent than in Ochi’s match against massive 5’8 flyweight Kota Ishibashi.
While Ishibashi’s 5-8 record is underwhelming compared to somebody like Haruo, it’s worth noting he started out his career going 0-6 at FW and BW and was 5-2 over his last 7, with a notable win over a future tormentor of Ochi’s in Sota Kojima.
The size disadvantage Ochi had for the entirety of the two-round bout was apparent, as Ishibashi used his reach & height advantage as often as he could and built his wrestling game around knowing he’s bigger than his opponent. Ochi forced Kota to defend a tight guillotine for two minutes in the 1st round, earning him the point, however in the 2nd round Kota escaped the guillotine much quicker & enjoyed his top control much longer as a result, earning him the point and making the fight a draw. Each of these, big challenges Ochi’s faced his entire career, similar to what Brooks faced in the UFC.
Hoping to circumvent this after Ochi went winless in 3 fights, Haruo made the drop to DEEP’s 115-lb division in 2015, where he hold’s one of the most powerful builds at strawweight. The advantages in the match were apparent in his debut against 0-3 Korean Son Joo-On. Although Son was an overmatched opponent that served to give Ochi an easy entrance into the SW division, give him his sign of respect in JMMA in a gimme Korean, and showcase his skills, he still held a significant size advantage over Ochi and powerful Taekwondo & good Jiu-Jitsu, and knew how to use his reach advantage over a 5’3 SW.
So the statement Ochi was able to make regarding the skills he threatens the division with was quite clear, and it’s been the story of the majority of his SW career, as Ochi’s offensive wrestling capabilities were amplified as much along with his strength in the lowest division in Men’s MMA, and were only going to improve.
Ochi’s developed his get-underneath-the-hips double-leg takedown game to an elite level, and it has only gotten stronger as his SW career has progressed.
Ochi’s takedowns against then-5-1 Namiki Kawahara— passing to half-guard amid the chaos of hitting the ground after a double-leg is a favorite move of Ochi
Ochi showcasing the same love of passing after a double in his 1st DEEP title-defense against Yuya Shibata
In Brooks’ coming-out party to the SW division, he made a very similar statement, as he used his powerful Midwest wrestling to KO Shooto’s strawweight sprawl ‘n brawler, Junji Sarumaru, in two rounds. The major thing to note in Brooks’ performance was that this was the first KO loss of Sarumaru’s career, and in his previous fight, against then-#2-ranked Shooto champion Nobita Naito, he made it all 5 rounds against the technical Japanese wrestler.
An American wrestler, meanwhile, KO’d him in two rounds, sending resounding bells of insecurity & fear ringing throughout the largely-homogenous members of the Asian-led SW division immediately.
Jarred’s ground ‘n pound is one of the most feared weapons in the division
The statement Jarred made in his sophomore appearance in the straw division in Pancrase only furthered this paranoia, as Brooks showcased his money shot & staple of the American wrestling-boxing MMA diet that is further augmented by his massive, powerful back: the right-straight.
The one-two-double leg combination combined with immense physical conditioning & a focus on textbook defense is a good way to describe the archetypal American MMA style, and Brooks showcases why that style has led to a severe change in landscape of the entire martial arts world over the last 20 years, as the first American fighter who grew up under that training philosophy in the SW division was able to succeed at an elite level right away. Following again in the American Midwest’s MMA philosophy, Brooks likely would have circumvented the entire struggle he had against larger opponents like Figureido had he been given the opportunity to fight at SW in America.
Jarred showing the underhook control he has thanks to his wrestling background & massive trapezius & tatisimus muscles
The ground and pound of both Ochi and Brooks has been terrifying throughout their SW careers, as this fight is likely to determine the strawweight inheritor of the will of Mark “The Hammer” Coleman’s Ground and Pound essence.
Despite having their challenges mirror each other in so many ways and presenting the same questions-- “at 5‘3, what division do I belong in?” “What is the best way to implement my wrestling with my build?” “What kind of fighters do I struggle against the most?”-- it is here where Ochi and Brooks’ training backgrounds begin to develop different answers to those questions.
While Brooks is a lover of the basics of American kickboxing-wrestling-- strong one-two with finishing-emphasis on his right-straight, adequate low-kicks & a powerful double-leg at the top of their wrestling-technique mountain-- Ochi’s presence in the wide-variety-of-styles Japanese MMA scene prevented that option from being so easy to take, as the amount of fighters with professional kickboxing & Judo experience make a one-two-double-leg strategy pretty easy to plan for & counter.
The boxing solution to the “how do I beat a bigger guy?” dilemma is one that Ochi’s shown a love of his entire career: bodywork & a left-hook.
Ochi showcasing his unique-to-MMA love of counter-boxng to the body against Son Joo-Ho & Yuya Shibata
Ochi showcasing his left-hook & bodywork-centered boxing in his 2nd DEEP title-defense against Namiki Kawahara
Ochi using two left hooks, one to the body, to set up the knockout shot & become the #1 SW against Mitsuhisa Sunabe
The Japanese Shooto answer to that dilemna is: well-rounded submission wrestling or strong Japanese-Jiu-Jitsu-influenced BJJ. Which is where Ochi’s power with grib-based submissions like the Guillotine or the Bulldog choke is very delectable.
A solution that Ochi’s manufactured into his style out of sheer love of the move: flying knees
Ochi landing a flying knee on Tatsumitsu Wada before Wada uses his size in the clinch (again)
Ochi landing a flying knee to set up a takedown on Shibata
Although if you go by highlights and noteworthy opponents, and the fact that Brooks got a quick takedown on Ochi in their first fight, it seems like Brooks would be at an advantage.
However, there are several things to note that 10 seconds of a fight are impossible to convey. Like how Ochi spent several weeks training at an American wrestling academy after this fight.
Or how Brooks’ susceptibility to guillotine-type submissions was the entire reason he lost against Figureido, and the guillotine is the specialty submission of Ochi‘s MMA ramen shop, and the only fighters who have been able to escape from it without damage were FLWs, far larger & stronger than Brooks at 53 kilograms.
Perhaps the fact worth noting the most: Ochi’s takedown defense has been superb throughout his entire career, and against opponents of a similar height to himself, his sprawl has been exceptional, as Ochi’s fight against King of Pancrase Kiyotaka Shimizu showed.
Ochi’s bodywork & love of flying knees was visible against Shimizu as well
A fact worth noting about Brooks, however, is simple: he’s already 2-0 against Japanese Strawweights. And he has a widely-believed turn of phrase connected to his victory that his time in the UFC has only helped: that Japanese fighters lose against American wrestlers.
The most dangerous fact, however: Ochi was nearly finished by a right-straight earlier this year.
Jarred’s Chimpanzee-like power was made clear against 7-0 Jun Nakamura
Can Ochi dispel this notion in the Strawweight division once and for all and keep his status as the ruler of the division?! Will Brooks become the new #1 strawweight with an impressive victory?! Whose boxing will emerge victorious?!?!
So many questions and only one way to answer them. Let’s hope we get a definitive answer this time.