"This is the most important fight of my life" - Gustavo Balart ready to seize career-defining opportunity vs Jarred Brooks
For Gustavo Balart, ONE Fight Night 24 means earning a reward for all of the hard work and sacrifices that he has made.
The Cuban athlete moved to America in order to pursue MMA with the hopes of becoming a world champion.
With his extensive wrestling background, Balart is a dream student to have arrived in the Circle and ever since that point, he has been molded into the competitor that you now see.
His goal of becoming a world champion is now just one fight away as on August 2, he challenges for the interim strawweight MMA title.
His opponent, Jarred Brooks, isn't short on motivation either after the way that he lost his title via disqualification earlier this year.
Balart spoke in a recent interview with ONE Championship about how everything he has done has been leading up to Lumpinee Stadium:
"This fight is extremely important to me. I have been working for a long time for this occasion. It was always my main objective to come to the US to fight in MMA. This is the most important fight of my life. This is the result of many years of hard work."
Gustavo Balart has given up too much to not deliver
There is no better form of motivation than what Gustavo Balart is feeling heading into this fight.
Time spent away from his family has all been in service of fights like this where he can look to realize his dream by holding strawweight gold.
Not only that, but it would allow him to ruin Brooks' plans by going on to face Joshua Pacio in a title unification bout in the near future.
This fight is incredibly personal for Balart but not because of his feelings towards his opponent, because of what he has gone through to make it to this stage.
ONE Fight Night 24 will air live in US Primetime, free of charge for Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.