Fabricio Andrade expects John Lineker to take the fight to the ground: “He doesn’t wanna strike with me”

Fabricio Andrade fully expects John Lineker to take things to the canvas when the two bantamweight contenders meet for the vacant ONE bantamweight world championship.

Emanating from the newly renovated Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video will play host to one of the biggest rematches in promotional history. After an unfortunate and anticlimactic ending to their first meeting in October, the heavy-hitting Brazilians will settle things in ‘The Land of Smiles’ on Friday night.

Just hours away from their highly anticipated main event showdown, Fabricio Andrade spoke with the South China Morning Post to share his thoughts on what he expects from his opponent in the rematch now that the two have shared a substantial amount of time together inside the circle:

“A hundred percent, he doesn’t wanna strike with me. He’s got no chance to strike with me, so he has to take me down. But I’m also prepared to defend his takedowns and then I’m gonna make him pay when we stand up.”

Historically, John Lineker is a swing-first-and-ask-questions-later type of fighter, but that signature style did not work well for him against Fabricio Andrade in their first meeting. As a result, Lineker will most likely put away the big guns and focus on wrestling his opponent down for a little ground and pound.

Whether or not he can get Andrade down and keep him there is the real question.

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Defeating John Lineker could open a world of opportunities for Fabricio Andrade

Fabricio Andrade has already seen his life significantly change just by sharing the Circle with John Lineker in their first matchup. Should he leave Lumpinee Boxing Stadium with 26.4 pounds of gold wrapped around his waist on Friday night, ‘Wonder Boy’ will see an entire world of opportunities become available to him.

Speaking to MMA Underground, Andrade expressed interest in doing a little bit of everything under the ONE Championship banner, including a foray into both Muay Thai and kickboxing. As a ONE world champion, Andrade can become the master of his own destiny, ‘Wonder Boy’ understands that to earn that type of flexibility, he has to pass the biggest test of his career at ONE Fight Night 7:

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to stop and look at the options because there’s actually a lot of options. I could fight Muay Thai, I could fight kickboxing, I could go up weight, there’s also a guy to defend the title from. There’s a lot of options. But I need to focus now on knocking Lineker out and we’ll see what we’ll do next.”

Fans in North America can watch Fabricio Andrade take control of his destiny against John Lineker live and for free this Friday night on Prime Video with an active Amazon subscription.