"I'm very focused" - John Lineker fully dialled in for kickboxing debut against former champ Hiroki Akimoto at ONE 172

John Lineker takes his cosmic knockout power into a new discipline at ONE 172, and he's fully locked in to let his trademark tool do the talking on fight night.

The Brazilian martial artist swaps the four-ounce gloves for a pair of mitts double in weight in a bantamweight kickboxing joust inside the Saitama Super Arena on Sunday, March 23.

He will have no easy task there, as he faces former divisional king and hometown favorite Hiroki Akimoto. With that in mind, 'Hands of Stone' revealed during an interview with ONE Championship that he's not taking anything lightly.

John Lineker shared:

"I'm very focused, and we'll see after this fight if we can continue to do other kickboxing fights."

Lineker's 'Hands of Stone' helped him to almost 20 knockouts in his mixed martial arts career, including a sublime finish of Bibiano Fernandes to claim the bantamweight MMA gold in the promotion.

He has utilized his primary weapon to good use across three Muay Thai fights more recently, finishing Asa Ten Pow and Alexey Balyko with second-round and first-round knockouts, respectively.

Despite falling short in his last outing to 'Left Meteorite' Kulabdam Sor Jor Piek Uthai, the 34-year-old reminded his Thai opponent of the power in his hands as he sent him down with a punishing left hand early.

Fight fans eager to see how Lineker fares in his kickboxing bow can catch him in action at ONE 172, which will be available at watch.onefc.com on March 23.

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John Lineker assesses Hiroki Akimoto's style ahead of Japan showdown

During the same exchange with the promotion, John Lineker told fans that they can expect an interesting clash of styles when he goes toe-to-toe with Hiroki Akimoto in Saitama, Japan.

'Hands of Stone' continued:

"We have very different styles. My game is more of a boxing game, where I try to shorten the distance and land blows from close range."

As Lineker seeks to get off to winning ways in his debut in the discipline, the Japanese athlete has eyes on a bounce-back triumph at ONE 172 after failing to get his hand raised in three successive outings against Ilias Ennahachi, Wei Rui, and Petchtanong Petchfergus.