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Former ONE bantamweight MMA world champion John Lineker plans to book a super-fight while waiting for a trilogy bout against Fabricio Andrade.
In February 2023, Andrade became the ONE bantamweight MMA king in a rematch against Lineker that was scheduled after a no-contest in their first fight. Since then, the world-class bantamweight fighters have gone their separate ways temporarily.
Lineker defeated top contenders Kim Jae Woon and Stephen Loman to end 2023 on a high note. As for Andrade, he sought greatness by attempting to become a two-sport world champion but came up short when ONE bantamweight Muay Thai king Jonathan Haggerty knocked him out for the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing world title.
Andrade will be sidelined for a few months as he’s recovering from his injuries in the previous calendar year. Lineker decided to stay busy by booking a Muay Thai fight against Liam Harrison, which fell through due to an injury on Harrison's side.
During a recent interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Lineker had this to say about wanting to book another super-fight before Andrade returns for their rumored trilogy bout:
“I want to fight for the title, but it looks like Fabrício Andrade is going to undergo surgery and won't fight for a while. So, I hope I can do some super-fights until he comes back and puts the belt on the line.”
Fabricio Andrade reveals he had lingering injuries that he continued to fight with
Following his defeat against Jonathan Haggerty, Fabricio Andrade claimed he was compromised during the fight due to past injuries. Andrade decided to take some time off and fully heal from the damage he acquired from training and world title fights.
During an interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Andrade had this to say about his lingering injuries:
“Old injuries came back before that. I went to the doctors. I went to do a lot of things. But I still couldn’t fix it. But I still decided I wanted to fight. It’s an old mentality that we have in Brazil.”
Heading into 2024, Fabricio Andrade has an opportunity to separate himself as arguably the greatest bantamweight MMA fighter on the planet. To do so, ‘Wonder Boy’ will likely have to get through John Lineker again and another top contender to be announced.
