“I knew he was hurt” - Fabricio Andrade knew his boxing hurt John Lineker with first punch

ONE bantamweight star Fabricio Andrade came literally seconds away from becoming the new world champion back in ONE on Prime Video 3. Due to an unfortunate foul, however, the bout ended in a no-contest midway into the third round.

What made it even more of a bitter pill to swallow was the fact that 'Wonder Boy' was mere seconds away from possibly finishing the then-world champion, John 'Hands of Stone' Lineker.

Fabricio Andrade masterfully used his length and height to pepper and hurt Lineker from a distance. 'Hands of Stone' got his own good licks in but Andrade was in the zone, eventually connecting with his trademark knee to the body. The shot immediately hurt Lineker and Andrade went in for the kill.

The ill-fated foul happened when Andrade, seemingly targeting Lineker's injured ribs, accidentally went too low and hit his groin. The Brazilian powerhouse couldn't continue any longer and so the referee waved off the contest.

In an interview with The MMA Super-fan on YouTube, Andrade spoke about his performance against 'Hands of Stone'. Apparently, despite the fact that it was his knee strike that hurt the then-world champion, 'Wonder Boy' believes that it was his boxing that was pivotal in the outcome of the fight:

"Many times, from the first round. You know I trained a lot of boxing for this fight, but I haven’t dropped anybody with a punch. I dropped Li Kai Wen with a high kick, but I haven’t dropped like or KO’d anybody just from a punch."

'Wonder Boy' concluded with:

"But I train a lot of boxing. Many people say, it was mentioned to me how powerful my boxing was and when I hit him with the first cross and straight I saw how he wobbled. Then I knew he was hurt."

In a fistfight, power can truly make a difference. Even if it doesn't knock your opponent out, just touching them with enough pop in your punches can effectively shake their confidence and mess up their game.

One can say that by making Lineker worry about his powerful boxing, Fabricio Andrade made him vulnerable to knee strikes. Fortunately for Andrade, he’ll get another crack at Lineker early next year, at ONE on Prime Video 7 in Jakarta in February.

Watch the full interview below:

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Fabricio Andrade still critical of his performance despite hurting John Lineker

In a separate interview with SCMP MMA, Fabricio Andrade made an overall assessment of his performance against 'Hands of Stone'. 'Wonder Boy' was surprisingly critical of how he fought that night:

“That’s the reason why I knew I was going to win the fight. That’s the same case with my fight with Shoko Sato. I won the fight. I knew I was going to win, but it was not my best performance. I didn’t show everything that I can do in those fights.”

Japan's Shoko Sato was the last man to survive a fight with Fabricio Andrade without getting finished. Like Lineker, Andrade pretty much out-classed the Japanese to a unanimous decision win.

If that performance was still not satisfactory for Andrade, imagine what a perfect performance for him would look like.

Watch his full interview with SCMP below: