MMA fighter John Lineker is eager to win back the ONE bantamweight championship from Fabricio Andrade and is focused on putting on the best fight possible in his upcoming match against Jae Woong Kim.
John Lineker has his eyes set on regaining the ONE bantamweight championship. Known as “Hands of Stone,” he made a remarkable achievement by capturing the ONE belt with a knockout of Bibiano Fernandes in 2022. However, his victory was short-lived: he missed weight during his first title defense against Fabricio Andrade later the same year, resulting in a no-contest due to an unintentional low blow. In a subsequent match four months later for the vacant title, Andrade won by corner stoppage. Now, Lineker is eager to get his title back.
When recently speaking about this experience on the Trocação Franca podcast, Lineker emphasised his focus on reclaiming the title. “I told my master, I want to fight Fabricio again. I don’t want him to lose the belt until I fight him because I need to fight him again. I need to fight him,” he stated. He soon returns to action at the ONE Fight Night 13 in Bangkok, Thailand, where he will face Jae Woong Kim. Lineker has promised to “do my job, put on the best fight possible and try to impress the organization so that they give me an opportunity to fight for the title again.”
Undeniably, Lineker sees future promise in the upcoming fight against Kim, who goes by the nickname “The Fighting God.” Kim, a professional MMA fighter with a 13-7 record, has won four of his last eight matches, all by knockout. Some of his victories include triumphs over former ONE champions Kevin Belingon and Martin Nguyen. Lineker shared his tactics for the forthcoming match, stating, “I’ve watched some of his videos and he’s a striker, has good boxing from the outside and tries to throw kicks to the body. I don’t expect him to go for takedowns. I’m focusing on him coming to stand and trade so I can use my boxing and punching power.”
The upcoming match poses an added challenge as it takes place in a ring rather than in the traditional ONE cage. This was a big hurdle for Lineker during his rematch with Andrade, as his strategy relied heavily on using the fence to control the Muay Thai specialist and score takedowns. However, he is more prepared for the situation this time around. “I was lost a lot when I fought Fabricio because it was in a ring. We don’t have many rings to train in my city, so I got lost during the fight, but now I worked more in the center of the cage so I don’t use the fence. It would obviously be better if it was in a cage, but I had a nice camp this time to fight in a ring,” Lineker remarked.