For Titan lightweight E.J. Brooks, a promising undefeated start to his 12-fight MMA career has spun out of control into a tough 1-4 stretch in his last five bouts.
The recent slump has been tough for Brooks, especially after impressing on Bellator undercards with four consecutive wins.
Fortunately now under the Titan Fighting banner, Brooks believes that he’s figured out what caused his struggle, and he is ready to put together another streak of wins, starting with Jason Novelli at Titan FC 35 on September 19th.
“I haven’t been performing lately in my fights because I started off 7-0, and I was doing really well,” Brooks said on The MMA Report Live. “Then something happening, and I just started underperforming. I think it was mainly because of the type of training that I started doing. I think I had got comfortable in my skill-set, and I stopped trying to learn. I started going to the gym to get a workout instead of actually trying to learn stuff.”
It was only recently that E.J. Brooks had the epiphany that he needed to re-evaluate his training habits as well as his management if he wanted to fulfill the potential he showed early on in his career.
“It was pretty much after this last fight,” Brooks said. “I was just figuring out what was wrong, where I am going wrong. One, taking stupid fights. Just ignorant fights that you shouldn’t be taking. You shouldn’t be taking fights with guys who should or could be in the UFC or Bellator on their home turf for a small promotion where the judges are most likely paid off.”
“The biggest regret in my career would be walking into the cage knowing that I wasn’t mentally ready to fight, and that’s when I got my first loss. My first loss came on a day where I had some significant family issues going on, and I should have pulled out of the fight.”
Moving forward, Brooks has started to right his recent woes in the gym by training at American Top Team.
“I would say I definitely made significant changes,” Brooks said. “I went down to ATT. I went down there to Coconut Creek, trained with some monsters and some killers, and I really like where my game is at right now. I’m very confident in my skillset, my cardio. I’m just in a really happy place right now.”
Not only as training at American Top Team improved his training habits, but it’s restored his confidence as Brooks has been able to spar with some of the MMA’s top athletes.
“I go there as much as possible whenever I’ve got an opportunity to go down there,” Brooks said. “I just know that’s the best camp in the world. It’s got a lot of elite guys around my weight class. Going down there and training with guys like Nik Lentz, Dustin Poirier, Will Brooks, Colby Covington, Mirsad Bektic, even Robbie Lawler.”
“Those are some of the names that you could just randomly go with everyday. I’m going out there with killer, guys like Gleison Tibau, Hector Lombard, Nathan Coy. Everybody’s a freaking savage out there. It’s either sink or swim when you go there, and I love it.”
Also on The MMA Report Live, Brooks’ opponent, Jason Novelli, criticized E.J.’s game – saying that Brooks is a good wrestler but there are a lot of holes in his game. Despite the harsh nature of the criticism, it hasn’t motivated Brooks because Brooks already has enough motivation.
“I don’t really care about what people say before a fight, especially this fight,” Brooks said. “I’m already pissed off about the results of my last fight and the fight before that. I plan on going there to try to kick his ass. I got one thing on my mind, and it’s to go in there, punch him in the face, drop him on his head, get up [and] punch him in the cage again. That’s just where my head’s at. Nothing he’s going to say is going to motivate me to do anything more than I’m already going to do.”