‘Ill’ Will Brooks has a lot on his plate this weekend, as the avid amateur chef heads into the PFL post-season fighting a familiar face in Rashid Magomedov.
Long Beach, CA — Will Brooks is in playoff action at PFL 9 on Saturday night, and in the quarterfinal round, he’ll be taking on Rashid Magomedov. The twist here is that the pair have shared a gym, even for part of Brook’s most recent training camp. So at the very least, he’ll be fighting an opponent familiar with him, and vice versa. Beyond that, there’s two fights in a night to contend with, across a possible total of five rounds.
Speaking to Cageside Press Thursday, Brooks — who has published “Amateur Hour Cooking” videos to his Youtube channel, gave a few tips on skirt steak before getting to the meat of the issue: the PFL playoffs, and PFL 9.
On his approach to the two-fights in a night format, Brooks said he’s treating it “like a training day.”
“We train two or three times a day at times,” he explained of his training regimen. “You have one workout that’s an hour and a half. That’s longer than what a fight would be. You have another workout, you come back in a couple hours later, and you have another workout that’s almost two hours, a hard-paced workout. We’re constantly competing all day. It’s the same approach.”
“The way you practice is how you fight” he finished.
Thus far, the approach has been working. The former Bellator lightweight champion left the UFC on a skid, but has won both his fights in the PFL thus far. “It’s been a good year,” Brooks admitted. Yet the despite the success, it’s not as if he’s made any drastic changes to how to tackles the fight game. “We’ve continued to do what we normally do, and that’s go into every single training camp and try to get better every single fight. And that’s in regards to any promotion, it doesn’t matter what promotion I’m in. I’m always going to try to be the best Will Brooks I can be every single night that I compete.”
“I don’t care what the logo is, but being with the PFL has been refreshing,” he added. “I think myself and the PFL have kind of been in this rebranding phase where we’re kind of in that same area at the same time, so it blends well.”
Catch our full interview with Will Brooks ahead of PFL 9 above! The card airs live on NBC SN on Saturday, October 13 following prelims on Facebook Watch!
