Fans react to controversial no-contest ending to John Lineker vs. Fabricio Andrade

The main event of ONE on Prime Video 3 featuring John Lineker and Fabricio Andrade ended in an underwhelming fashion as an unintentional foul caused the match to be declared a no-contest in the third round.

The bantamweight clash between the two hard-hitting strikers was as good as advertised throughout the first two rounds, and the third round was playing out the same way.

In what looked to be the ending sequence of the match, ‘Wonder Boy’ landed a knee to the body that took the air out of Lineker. As ‘Hands of Stone’ reeled back to the circle wall, Andrade followed up with another knee to the body, but it was ruled as a low blow.

Lineker was given five minutes to recover, but ultimately said he couldn’t continue. Fans inside the Axiata Arena in Malaysia and the thousands watching at home were left stunned as no winner was declared.

On Instagram, some fans sympathized with Fabricio Andrade, who they believe was well on his way to winning the world title:

“Fabricio won the fight! That’s BS first knee was so powerful and second one almost everyone could [come] back and recover but John didn’t recover from the first knee and used the second one as an excuse! He knew he lost a fight!”

Another fan applauded ‘Wonder Boy’ for making good on his promise of turning John Lineker to a wrestler. :

“Anyway, @fabricioandrade1 said he was going to make lineker turn into grappling and he actually did, what a wonderboy 🔥👏”

One fan thinks ‘Hands of Stone’ did not display the qualities of a world champion during the weekend:

“Lineker got lucky there. Because he is ineligible to win due to not making the weight. Plus he's been outboxed by Fabricio. We want a rematchhhh immediately!!!! 🔥”

Meanwhile, some fans believe that John Lineker was justified in not being able to continue:

"Lineker definitely got lucky but all these people acting like he faked the reaction mustn't have a pair of working ba**s.”

A shattered groin guard is unheard of as it is made precisely to absorb impact. A fan left a comment saying:

“For all saying he knew he was going to lose be quite getting hit so hard your cup shatters is crazy”

One fan believes the conclusion was reminiscent of the controversial first fight between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan that was also stopped due to an illegal strike that not a lot of fans agreed with:

“The knee was illegal but Lineker knew he was losing and knew it was close to him getting either KO'd or TKO'd. I think he took the easy way out there. Guy should have been a warrior and not acted out. It’s Sterling/Yan all over again.”

Of course, there are fans who just want to see the two sluggers run it back:

“First knee was unlucky, second was dirty, idk if I would’ve scored Andrade for that but I’d love to see a rematch to ultimately decide 💪💪💪”

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John Lineker’s manager shares the broken groin guard

If there were any doubts about the “broken” cup in the aftermath of the main event match, John Lineker’s manager, Alex Davis, shared a video of the groin guard after the match.

From the video, it can be seen that even if John Lineker were to recover from that cup-shattering blow, he would not be able to continue without having to replace it.

What did you think about the conclusion of their match?