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Fabricio Andrade has planned out his next two fights with ONE Championship.
Andrade’s hopes of becoming the bantamweight world champion abruptly ended after he landed an illegal knee to the groin of John Lineker. The disappointing no-contest will be settled at ONE on Prime Video 7 on February 10, 2023. Despite ‘Wonder Boy’ still needing to beat Lineker, he already has plans for his first world title defense:
“I think he [Loman] deserves to fight for the belt. He's a guy I've been talking about for a long time. He was champion of another event before joining ONE. He's a guy who has a good record and comes from good wins at ONE. I don't think he's the toughest opponent in the division, I don't think he's shown anything I haven't seen before, but he's next in line. And I'll be very happy to knock him out too.”
Andrade was arguably on track to beating Lineker before the fight ended. The 25-year-old now has an opportunity to become the bantamweight king five months after the disappointing ending at ONE on Prime Video 5.
Fabricio Andrade believes he’s "the guy to beat" at bantamweight
Fabricio Andrade has never lacked confidence in his fighting skills. To be fair, he’s delivered masterclass performances in most of his ONE Championship fights. During an interview with ONE, ‘Wonder Boy’ had this to say about taking over the bantamweight division:
“When I joined ONE, I had a few names in my mind because they were ahead of me in the rankings and I wanted to fight whoever was ahead of me. But now, I reached the top and these guys who are coming need to show why they deserve to fight me. I think today I'm the guy to beat in the bantamweight division and the other fighters need to show their work. They need to improve, evolve, and have exciting fights to show that they deserve to fight me. So, I don't have any names in my mind anymore. Now is the time to finish off the Lineker. And Loman is next.”
Fabricio Andrade made his ONE debut in July 2020 and has since dominated the division with five consecutive wins to start his promotional tenure, including three consecutive first-round knockouts that led him to a world title opportunity. If ‘Wonder Boy’ can take out John Lineker, a bantamweight showdown against Team Lakay’s Stephen Loman would be a must-see matchup.
