ONE Championship news roundup: Gasanov fires at Tonon, Lineker lauds Andrade’s skills, Andrade admits mistake in world title bout

ONE Championship recently concluded its third Amazon Prime Video card. It’s safe to say that the high from that event still linger on to this day.

ONE on Prime Video 3 was, to say the least, a historic event for the promotion. It saw Kade Ruotolo beat Uali Kurzhev to become the inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion.

Regian Eersel, the reigning ONE lightweight kickboxing world champion, captured his second belt when he beat Sinsamut Klinmee to become the first ONE lightweight Muay Thai world champion.

The main event of ONE on Prime Video 3 may have ended in a disappointing no contest, but it nonetheless showcased the near-unstoppable rise of Fabricio Andrade.

The aftermath of the memorable event has seen numerous takeaways and post-fight remarks hit the headlines. With that trend continuing, here are ONE Championship’s three biggest stories from yesterday.

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#3. Shamil Gasanov fires at ONE Championship featherweight Garry Tonon

Shamil Gasanov made a stunning debut in ONE Championship when he submitted the hard-hitting Kim Jae Woong at ONE on Prime Video 3 this past weekend at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

Not content with his first match, Gasanov immediately launched a tirade at the top featherweights of ONE Championship. The one man he wanted beef with was Garry Tonon.

Gasanov and Tonon are deadly submission experts and it seems the Russian star wants to prove his mettle against one of the best grapplers in his division.

While Gasanov started the feud immediately after his victory over Kim, Tonon was quick to fire back on social media, writing:

“@shamilcobra says I don't last 5 minutes with him. What do you think? Do I succumb to the mixed martial arts Russian🇷🇺 invasion? Or do I break off his leg, use it to fly our flag, and make Ronald Reagan and the American people proud 🇺🇸💪? @onechampionship.”

In an interview with ONE Championship, Gasanov quickly fired back and downplayed who Tonon is as a fighter:

“He is nothing more than an American trash talker. If he thinks he can break off my leg, I can rip his head off and mail it back to the States after the fight.”

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#2. John Lineker admits Fabricio Andrade’s skills were a problem

The world title fight between John Lineker and Fabricio was supposed to be the end of a months-long feud, but it suffered the unfortunate fate of ending in a no contest.

Nevertheless, it showed how much of a star ‘Wonder Boy’ is at ONE Championship. Even Lineker had to admit his rival’s brilliance.

Andrade was utterly dominant in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 3. He appeared poised to claim the vacant ONE bantamweight world title until his accidental knee strike to the groin resulted in the match being a no contest.

The 25-year-old kept tagging Lineker with such hellacious punishment that ‘Hands of Stone’ admitted that he had a hard time keeping up with Andrade’s kicks.

Lineker said during the post-fight press conference:

“I usually don't have a hard time going up against taller guys or guys with a bigger wingspan, but his kicks and knees worried me a little, and that's why I didn't get into his range that much. I could have explored the low kicks more to disrupt his game and come in with my boxing, but his jabs were getting in and keeping me away from him.”

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#1. Fabricio Andrade admits to a costly mistake in trying to finish John Lineker

Fabricio Andrade never wanted his first world title fight to end in a no contest, but he nonetheless admitted that the final strike he threw was indeed a mistake on his part.

‘Wonder Boy’ was on fire in the third round of his match against Lineker and his body seemed to move on pure instinct. Andrade tagged his rival with a gut-wrenching knee strike to the torso and looked to have the fight finished.

With Lineker reeling, Andrade set up another knee strike. This time, it accidentally landed on the groin instead of the midsection.

The match was momentarily stopped for Lineker to get back up after the mandatory recovery time, but the strike was so severe that it broke the cup that ‘Hands of Stone’ wore.

Andrade said in an interview with ONE Championship that he got carried away in what could’ve been the finishing sequence of the match.

“When I landed the knee on him, I thought, ‘Now, it's over.’ But it turned out that I got carried away and ended up landing a blow to his genitals, which turned out to be his salvation.”