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Things didn't go as planned for John Lineker in his first bantamweight title defense against Fabricio Andrade at ONE on Prime Video 3. The belt is now vacant as the former champ slipped to No.2 in the division's rankings.
'Hands of Stone' struggled to find his range for most of the fight, which he claims was in part due to damage taken early on in the bout:
"When his blow hit my eye, I couldn't see straight anymore. This bothered me a lot because I couldn't find the target (laughs). My vision was not 100 percent. I couldn't find the distance, but when I started to find it, I ended up taking that knee, which hurt me a lot."
Normally, the champ would retain his belt following a no-contest ruling. However, that's not the case in this instance, with Lineker failing to make weight prior to the fight. The 32-year-old had one of the toughest weeks of his storied career.
John Lineker focused on coming back stronger
Despite recent events, Lineker remains one of the top fighters on the entire ONE roster. In fact, he is still yet to suffer a defeat since joining the organization back in 2019. 'Hands of Stone' expects to come back focused and determined:
"But I will come back, I will focus more and correct some mistakes to come back stronger."
Commendably, John Lineker is taking 100% of the blame for missing weight in the lead-up to his first ONE title defense:
"It's a trauma. I was very upset. I wasn't suffering to lose weight, it wasn't lack of professionalism or lack of training. It was silly and made me very upset, even because of the history I already had.”
Unfortunately, missing weight is something that has haunted Lineker throughout his professional career. While fighting in the UFC, he failed to make weight five different times which ultimately lead to his release.
Be on the lookout for news regarding John Lineker's next fight, as it will either be for the bantamweight title or against another top contender.
Check out the entire fight-ending sequence below:
