“He has to kill me” - John Lineker says there’s only one way Fabricio Andrade can win this fight

John Lineker believes that there’s no conventional way Fabricio Andrade can beat him in their much-anticipated world title showdown.

The two sluggers will settle their differences at ONE on Prime Video 3 when Lineker defends his gold against Andrade on October 21 at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

The match between the two Brazilian stars is shaping up to be one of the most electrifying fights that ONE Championship will have this year. Both fighters haven’t been shy in expressing how they would batter each other up, and John Lineker feels that there’s no way Fabricio Andrade is taking the win against him.

Lineker, in an interview with ONE Championship, said that the only way Andrade can beat him is if the No.2-ranked contender sends him to the nether realms:

“I think that [knocking me out] will be a very difficult thing for him to achieve. He won’t knock me out in any round. I’m a very tough fighter. It’s not enough for my opponent to beat me. He has to kill me if he wants to beat me.”

He added:

“So, I warn him to forget about it because he won’t knock me out in any round. He’ll just keep it in his imagination because it sure as hell won’t happen in real life.”

Andrade and Lineker both have perfect records in ONE Championship and the two share six knockouts between them.

Lineker is on a streak of three straight knockouts and his third was arguably the biggest of his career. ‘Hands of Stone’ proved to be worthy of his nickname when he knocked Bibiano Fernandes out to become the ONE bantamweight world champion at ONE: Lights Out this past March.

Andrade, meanwhile, has three straight first-round knockouts culminating in a masterclass against Kwon Won Il at ONE 158 this past June.

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John Lineker says Fabricio Andrade doesn’t have the courage to face him

Fabricio Andrade has long established his presence as one of the best talkers in ONE Championship, but John Lineker has shown that his verbal counters are as sharp as his left hooks.

The bantamweight king recently took to Instagram to show that Andrade isn’t on his level. Lineker challenged Andrade to trade shots with him but claimed that the world title contender doesn’t have the courage to do that inside the circle.

“Fabricio! I dare you to stand toe to toe with me and strike until one of us goes down! You do not have the courage!"