“I have everything in my life” - John Lineker says he doesn’t care about the criticism hurled at him

Despite the tough times as of late, former ONE bantamweight world champion John Lineker is opting to look at the brighter side.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Lineker in the aftermath of his no-contest ruling against Fabricio Andrade at ONE on Prime Video 3 last week. A day before his first world title defense, ‘Hands of Stone’ was stripped of the 145-pound crown after missing weight. The fight still pushed through, but things didn’t go as planned for the 32-year-old veteran.

Despite a strong showing against his brash challenger, particularly in the second round where he tagged Andrade a couple of times, Lineker was on the verge of getting finished in the third after receiving a devastating knee to the body.

However, just moments later, ‘Wonder Boy’ inadvertently hit him in the groin, leaving the Brazilian heavy hitter crumbling to the circle floor in pain. The low blow was so hard that John Lineker’s cup supposedly broke during the sequence. With Lineker unable to continue, the fight was stopped prematurely and no victor was announced.

Adding insult to injury, Andrade kept his verbal tirade going on, accusing the former world champion of allegedly “quitting” during their match. He also received a ton of criticism online from angry fans who were disappointed over the anticlimactic end of the match.

After getting discharged from the hospital, he went home and broke his silence through a heartwarming Instagram story.

John Lineker shared what appeared to be a sweet surprise from his family. He captioned the post, which was roughly translated from Portuguese:

“Why would I care about all the criticism if I have everything in my life -- God, family, friends who really cheer for me?”

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Fabricio Andrade steals John Lineker’s nickname

It didn’t take long for Fabricio Andrade to return to his antagonizing ways on social media. After re-arranging John Lineker’s face with precise shots throughout their fight, ‘Wonder Boy’ claimed that he should called ‘Hands of Stone’ from now on.

He wrote:

“@johnlinekermma now you call me hands of stone b****h #johnpillowhands #chicken.”

While both fighters managed to tag each other multiple times, it was clear that Andrade landed the crisper and more damaging strikes. Additionally, his chin was able to survive Lineker’s bombs in the second round of their fight.

Had Andrade opted to let his hands go instead of attempting another knee in the third round, then maybe he would have won via TKO and would have had the world title on his waist right now. The only way to settle this is with a rematch, and we’ll have to wait and see if ONE decides to go down that path.