John Lineker learned well from initial encounter with Fabricio Andrade

John Lineker knows that if he hopes to become a two-time ONE bantamweight world champion, he’ll have to approach his rematch with the always-dangerous Fabricio Andrade differently.

The two warriors will once again meet under the bright lights of the main event spotlight, this time at the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Thailand as ONE Championship presents ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video.

The event takes place on February 24 at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and streams on Amazon Prime in U.S. prime time for North American subscribers.

Ahead of their main event showdown, Lineker spoke with Sportskeeda MMA in an exclusive interview to discuss his vastly different approach going into the highly anticipated rematch:

“It was a tough fight, Andrade has excellent Muay Thai. The lesson I learned from this fight is to work more at distance, grapple more, work on footwork and move my head more so that the fight develops in a different way.”

In their first meeting, John Lineker opted to simply walk through Andrade’s shots, a decision that he would regret as the fight grew longer. Lineker was narrowly finished by his fellow countryman in their October meeting, but an accidental low blow by Andrade resulted in the bout being called off and ruled a no-contest.

Now with a second chance, John Lineker will make the necessary adjustments to improve his chances of leaving Bangkok with 26.4 pounds of gold wrapped around his waist.

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John Lineker is pumped for ONE Championship’s United States debut

On May 5, ONE Championship will make its long-awaited debut in the United States with ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video. John Lineker shared his thoughts on ONE’s scheduled event in North America and what it means for his fellow fighters:

“ONE's U.S. debut is great news for all of us fighters and also for the event, which has been growing a lot around the world. And it will be very good for us fighters in terms of sponsorship and visibility, among other aspects.”

While Lineker’s focus is on getting the win at ONE Fight Night 7 on February 24, ‘Hands of Stone’ would love the opportunity to be part of the festivities when ONE invades the 1stBank Center in Colorado this spring:

“It would be an honor to fight on this card, even because most of my international fights were in the United States. So, to be fighting again in the U.S. and now for the ONE Championship would be amazing.”