John Lineker was surprised with Fabricio Andrade’s chin

At ONE Fight Night 7, John Lineker showed clear improvements from the last time that he stepped inside the circle. Whilst he was unsuccessful in regaining the bantamweight world championship, his rematch with Fabricio Andrade was far more competitive the second time around.

A big question going into February 24 was how Lineker would adapt his game plan. In their first meeting, ‘Hands of Stone’ was unable to land too many of his devastating power shots, but this wasn’t the case in the rematch.

Despite being known for sending opponents to the canvas once he connects with strikes, Fabricio Andrade wasn’t going anywhere when he was hit by John Lineker. With a great display of heart and toughness from both men, it was Andrade who got the win following Lineker’s corner, waving the fight off after the fourth round.

Following their fight, the former bantamweight world champion spoke about his opponent’s toughness in an interview with ONE Championship:

“I almost knocked him out a couple of times, but he took the blows pretty well. And the times I managed to put him down, he managed to get up. But that strategy was just to confuse him and make him more worried about takedowns so I could work more on my boxing.”

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John Lineker hails Fabricio Andrade’s jabs that impaired his vision

One aspect of his rematch with Fabricio Andrade that John Lineker wasn’t able to improve on was how much he got hit. The former champion made clear improvements in landing his own offense and securing takedowns, but he still lost a lot of exchanges to the faster and rangier Andrade.

Lineker may have done a better job this time around in cutting his opponent off and not letting him dance around the circle, but he still ate an awful lot of counterstrikes.

Andrade’s greatest weapon in the rematch was his jab. With his range advantage over his opponent, ‘Wonder Boy’ showed once again just how precise he can be, lasering Lineker with his punches all fight long.

In an interview with ONE Championship, John Lineker reflected on how he could have done better in some aspects of the fight, specifically mentioning his opponent’s jabs:

“I think I needed less jabs to the face (laughs), because my face ended up getting pretty swollen and I started to lose my vision. Then, unfortunately, the fight had to be stopped.”

As Lineker alluded to in the interview, in the end, it was the cumulative damage of these shots that led to the end of the fight. With his vision obscured, the former world champion’s corner waved the fight off before the start of the fifth round.