Fabricio Andrade will challenge John Lineker for the vacant bantamweight title at Friday’s ONE Championship card in Bangkok, Thailand, and says he’s actually surprised his fellow Brazilian had agreed to running it back after their first encounter.
“Wonderboy and “Hands of Stone”, first met back in October. However, the bout was stopped after Andrade dropped a low blow in round three. Andrade said on this week’s Trocacao Franca he expected Lineker to find a way out and force him to face someone else first.
“I was surprised he agreed to the rematch,” Andrade said. “He came out pretty bad from that fight, right? He seemed to be trying to move it forward or waiting for me to fight someone else, but he actually agreed to fight in February. This was a good time for me. I was delighted .”
Lineker wasn’t the champion at that time, as he had lost weight that day. So Andrade won the fight and was the sole winner. The UFC veteran has shared cages with the likes of T.J. Dillashaw, Rob Font, Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen prior to his 4-0 run at ONE, but Andrade feels he’s the worst possible match-up for him.
“[Lineker] understands my game, which is why he is unbeaten in the ONE title with five victories and four finishers. “He knows he’ll never have an easy fight with me, so he was trying to fight other guys who are in the ranking. Although he claimed he didn’t see my callsouts, we now know the truth. It’s not an easy match up for him. He tried to avoid this fight but it was necessary after I performed.
“I was calling for this title fight for a while and [ONE] kept sending me other people. It was a lot of fun to knock out everyone and I wanted to win the belt. It didn’t go the way that I wanted it to. I was very frustrated. After the fight, I was very frustrated and had to take a deep breath. I thought I’d lost. I came out without the belt and no bonus, so it gave me the sensation I had lost the fight.”
Andrade had a break for a while to rest before returning to training to fight in his second title bout. He stated that Lineker’s hands weren’t as heavy than his nickname implied, but was still unhappy with the performance in Malaysia.
“He was patienter with me and respected me more, which showed that he wasn’t afraid to get knocked down,” Andrade stated. He can’t alter much, but he does it the same way every time. He has done it for years and will continue to do so in the rematch .”
” I won’t pick [for the finish], I will just enjoy this moment,” he said. “I’m the better fighter and I have more weapons than him, I’m faster, so I’ll be patient and take my time. I’ll knock him out at any moment, I’m sure of that. I don’t need to be in a hurry. Just go out there and be ready to knock him out and end this circus.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/2/24/23609949/fabricio-andrade-surprised-john-lineker-agreed-rematch-one-afraid-getting-knocked-out?rand=96749
