"Ill" Will Brooks regrets that he got overly heated on Twitter last week during an argument with Patricio "Pitbull" Freire.
But the Bellator lightweight champ still wants to slap his featherweight counterpart the next time they cross paths.
On Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, Brooks vowed to make good on his vow to slap either Freire or his brother,Patricky, should they cross paths at Bellator 145 in St. Louis on Nov. 6.
"I stand by my words," Brooks said. "When I see Patricio, or Patricky, either one of them in St, Louis, I will slap one of them. I promise you that."
The Twitter beef between the two started late last week, after it was announced that Freire's 145-pound title defense against Daniel Straus would headline over Brooks' 155 defense against Marcin Held.
Friday, Freire took to Twitter and goaded Brooks, tweeting "Hey @illwillbrooks86, guess who's headlining the next tentpole event and who's in the undercard."
That led to a profane string of replies from Brooks, eventually accusing Freire of "talking a bunch of s--- to me. Let it build up and slap you in your f------ mouth when I see you."
By Monday, Brooks had cooled down enough that he felt regret over using a string of profanity, finding it unbecoming of a champion.
"When I went back and looked at, what I was saying and how I handled it, I was a little disappointed at myself for the way I was reacting, swearing and cursing," Brooks said. "It was unprofessional and irresponsible on my part. It's just frustrating, it was a cumulation of things happening that just got the best of me. I let him get free rent space in my mind, and allowed him to get negative energy into me and I just lost it."
But that's as far as Brooks will walk things back. He's not about to stand down from what he perceives as a deep disrespect on Freire's part.
"I think they're very disrespectful to this sport, they're very disrespectful to the fans, and I just don't like their character," Brooks said. "When I seem them in person, I saw both of them in St. Louis (in June). When I was out there for the previous St. Louis card, neither one of them had anything to say to me. I was standing right there in front of them. Everything they were saying on these Twitter accounts and all these different things, they don't say these things, when they see me, they don't say anything. Their eyes are down on the floor, which they should be. They haven't earned that type of respect for me to make eye contact with me, just because they're so disrespectful as human beings."
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