John Lineker and Bibiano Fernandes announced as headliners for ONE: Bad Blood on February 11

Bibiano Fernandes and John Lineker are set to headline ONE: Bad Blood, the promotion’s third event of the year, which will take place on February 11th.

The ONE bantamweight world title bout between the two Brazilians was originally scheduled to be part of ONE X, the Asian giant’s tenth anniversary show, first slated for December 2021. However, with Singapore tightening restrictions due to COVID-19, the event was postponed to a later date.

In an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Chatri Sityodtong confirmed that Bibiano Fernandes and John Lineker’s clash will now headline its own event, which is named after their rivalry.

“There’s real bad blood between Bibiano and Lineker. Brazilian style, they already called each other and said ‘let’s get ready,’” said Sityodtong. “There’s real anger and I’d say hatred.”

You can watch the clip of the announcement here:

In June of last year, Bibiano Fernandes called out ‘Hands of Stone’ for creating ‘hype in a rivalry that never existed’. Lineker's use of social media to issue a challenge to Fernandes led to this.

Meanwhile, Lineker clapped back on his Instagram by claiming that ‘The Flash’ was asking for an “absurd number $$$” just to fight him.

The two did not stop there, as they continued their war of words in interviews building up their originally scheduled confrontation.

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The opposing roads of John Lineker and Bibiano Fernandes

Bibiano Fernandes and John Lineker are both riding a win streak but have taken vastly different roads on their way to facing each other.

The ONE bantamweight world champion was last seen in action in October 2019’s ONE: Century II, where he defeated Kevin Belingon for a second consecutive time. The win closed the chapter on Fernandes' rivalry with the Filipino, as he now owns three wins in their four meetings.

The global pandemic and a host of other factors kept Bibiano Fernandes out of action since then, but he has expressed his desire to be more active in 2022 by defending his belt at least twice within the year.

It was John Lineker who started making waves during Fernandes’ absence. He made his promotional debut in the very next event, ONE: Dawn of Valor, where he earned a unanimous decision victory over Muin Gafurov.

His fights got shorter from there as he finished Kevin Belingon in the second round of their November 2020 clash at ONE: Inside the Matrix III, and later finished Troy Worthen in the first round of April 2021’s ONE on TNT III. His string of wins earned him the top contender spot to set up this match against Bibiano Fernandes.

Could Lineker’s rise mean the fall of Bibiano Fernandes?