“This chicken can pack a good punch” - John Lineker amused by Fabricio Andrade’s antics, motivated to shut him up

It’s never wise to poke the bear, especially if it’s in the form of an absolute killing machine like ONE bantamweight world champion John Lineker.

‘Hands of Stone’ believes that No.2-ranked challenger Fabricio Andrade will learn this the hard way when they finally square off in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 3.

This Friday, October 21 at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, fans will finally witness if the brash challenger can back up his words. ‘Wonder Boy’, after all, has been endlessly mocking the 145-pound divisional king with endless taunts heading into their highly-anticipated five-round war inside the Circle.

Andrade has pretty much used every insult in the book to try and get into Lineker’s skin. The experienced world champion, for his part, has remained unbothered by all this. As far as the 32-year-old KO artist is concerned, Andrade’s petty barbs are just white noise.

Then again, Lineker is only human and one particular insult caught his attention. His fearsome reputation precedes itself, but it seems like his brazen foe doesn’t see him as an apex predator.

In fact, Andrade likened the hard-hitting Brazilian to a harmless chicken – a running joke among his teammates at Tiger Muay Thai gym. Even ONE interim light heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin got into it by gifting Andrade with a shirt on his birthday, which had Lineker’s head superimposed on a chicken’s body.

The inspiration, of course, came from ‘Wonder Boy’, when he called out John Lineker and labeled him a “chicken” during one of his infamous post-fight interviews. During ONE’s recent virtual media day faceoff, Lineker addressed his challenger’s behavior and offered an interesting retort:

“I don’t feel affected at all. I find it very funny, and it motivates me to show him what this chicken can do to him because this chicken can pack a good punch.”

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John Lineker says emotions will be Fabricio Andrade’s biggest downfall

John Lineker’s seemingly nonchalant approach to Andrade’s relentless trash talk comes from over a decade of fighting experience. With over 40 professional bouts under his belt, the American Top Team savant has dealt with a lot of overbearing characters over the years.

Through it all, Lineker simply kept his mouth shut and let his fists do the talking once the fight started. At the end of the day, those nuclear fists of his still made the most noise.

Andrade, on the other hand, is riding the high of a five-fight winning streak inside the Circle and is extremely confident heading into this bout.

The elephant in the room, however, is the fact that he has only fought 10 times. John Lineker strongly believes that he can exploit the overly-emotional Andrade’s lack of experience once the bell rings. ‘Hands of Stone’ said in the same interview:

“Yeah, for sure. I think he’s more emotional than confident. He’s coming in as the challenger so he has all the weight on him. I’m the champion, I’m already here, I just have to keep my place. Instead of talking so much, he should focus on building himself up for the fight.”