EJ Brooks: Time to Reboot

As of late, EJ Brooks' fight career is like looking in a hall of mirrors. What is real and what is not is difficult to decipher.

Brooks dashed out to a 7-0 mark in the lightweight division with three finishes to start his pro career. But he has won just one in his last five fights spread out over nearly three years.

"I'm in a weird spot," Brooks said. "I was on the MMA Roasted podcast earlier this week and we were talking how I could easily be 11-1 but I'm not. It's time to reboot."

Brooks gets back on the horse Saturday in Ridgefield, WA at Titan FC 35. Brooks will face Jason Novelli at Titan FC 35 and you can watch it live on UFC Fight Pass.

Brooks (8-4) first fought for Bellator in 2011 and went 4-1 for the promotion over the course of a year. He's since made appearances in the RFA and in Argentina among others along the way. His last win came via decision at Titan 30 in September of last year.

"I have taken some bad fights and have lost close decisions," Brooks said. "I have been walking into traps. I need things to go right."

Novelli (8-1) is a up and comer fighting on his home turf. He trains at Rose City FC, where he is teammates with current Titan FC lightweight champion Pat Healy. Novelli is one of six fighters out of Rose City on the Titan card.

"He has all finishes but he's fought local, not-so-good guys," Brooks said. "He's not really weak at anything but I don't see where he is better than me. The only time he fought someone multi-skilled he got his ass kicked."

Brooks will be joined in Ridgefield with St. Charles MMA assistant coach Jeff Henry and UFC lightweight James Krause.

Brooks spends the bulk of his time teaching and coaching wrestling at Cahokia High School. With a home base at St. Charles MMA, Brooks has always been one to pick up varied training, whether it's getting rounds in with current UFC star welterweight Tyron Woodley or grappling with UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes. For many summers, he has left the Midwest for Coconut Creek, Fla to train at the main American Top Team gym. He learned about the Titan fight opportunity in June at ATT and it couldn't have come at a better time. While there Brooks got some of the best training, coaching, and advise of all his summer flings to Florida.

"This summer was better than most," Brooks said. "For the past couple of years I showed up out of shape and by they time I started clicking, it was time to go home. This year, I was in decent shape and I wasn't part of anyone's camp. The last two years it felt like I was Dustin Poirier's personal workout guy. It benefited my game."

Titan FC 35 has three title fights: lightweight champion Healy vs. Rick Hawn, Titan FC featherweight champion Andre Harrison vs. former Titan FC featherweight champion Desmond Green for the featherweight title. The other title fight is current Titan FC flyweight champion Tim Elliot defending his title against Felipe Efrain.

Photo from EJ Brooks Facebook