“I got carried away”– Fabricio Andrade admits to a costly mistake in trying to finish John Lineker

Fabricio Andrade recently spoke about the way his fight ended with John Lineker at ONE on Prime Video 3. The events leading up to the no-contest ruling robbed him of a glorious championship victory.

'Wonder Boy' took a few days to mull over the decision and find out exactly where it all went wrong.

Speaking exclusively to ONE Championship, Fabricio Andrade said:

“In the third round, I felt like I was going to knock him out. That would be his last round. He was very injured, he could no longer see with one eye and was very tired. I felt that he was very tired and that the power of his blows was no longer the same. I also saw the desperation in his corner, so I knew he wouldn't make it past that round.”

The opening round was a slugfest. Both fighters had their moments as they looked for an early finish. But mid-way into the battle, Lineker was looking worse for wear. Sensing blood, ‘Wonder Boy’ landed a good knee to the body and followed it up with another. However, the second shot landed low, leaving Lineker unable to continue due to the illegal strike.

Andrade continued to explain:

“When I landed the knee on him, I thought, ‘Now, it's over.’ But it turned out that I got carried away and ended up landing a blow to his genitals, which turned out to be his salvation.”

Before the event, Lineker was stripped of his world title for missing weight by a quarter of a pound on the scale and lost a portion of his purse as a result. This meant that even if he had emerged victorious, he was no longer eligible to win the belt.

With a no-contest ruling, Lineker lives to fight another day. But Andrade will always live with the regret of giving him an easy exit and not finishing the fight.

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Fabricio Andrade accuses John Lineker of giving up the fight

Fabricio Andrade was frustrated at himself for giving John Lineker the clean exit he needed.

According to ‘Wonder Boy,’ nothing was going right for his rival. From missing weight to losing money to getting dominated inside the circle - the embarrassment may have been too much to bear, so he needed an out.

Fabricio Andrade released the following statement on his Instagram page shortly after the fight:

“Honestly, I don’t think it [illegal knee] was enough to make him stop the fight, but he knew in the third round I just dropped him with a knee and he took the easy way out. Broke [the protective] cup? No one can guarantee that it was actually from the fight because he was acting like he knew the cup was broken. Honestly, I don’t believe the cup was broken.”