John Lineker Siding With Fellow Brazilian In High-Profile Trilogy Bout

This coming May 5th, ONE Championship will finally make its long-awaited debut in the United States, with their ONE Fight Night 10 card taking place at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado.

To headline the highly-anticipated event, ONE Championship brought out the big guns and scheduled the must-see trilogy bout between reigning flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and former longtime titleholder Adriano Moraes.

Johnson and Moraes split their first two matchups, with the Brazilian stunning the world and pulling off the massive knockout in their first meeting.

In the rematch, Johnson evened things up with a huge knockout of his own.

With the series tied at 1-1 heading into the rubber match, it’s hard to predict a clear winner and it’s likely that the odds are going to be quite close.

While a bigger chunk of American fans may side with Johnson, one fighter who believes otherwise is former ONE bantamweight champion John Lineker.

The heavy-handed Brazilian has pegged his compatriot to take the trilogy bout and recapture the ONE flyweight crown.

“I believe in a victory for Adriano Moraes,” Lineker boldly shared. “He has a better ground game than Demetrious Johnson”

” I believe he will work well from a distance since he has a bigger wingspan, and he won’t let the DJ dominate the center of the cage,” Lineker continued.

“Hands of Stone” even went far as to say that he sees Moraes getting the submission win. My bet is that Adriano Moraes will take down DJ and win this trilogy by submission.”

To say that Lineker and Johnson have history would be wildly inaccurate.

The two, however, were competing in the same weight class back when both fighters were signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Unfortunately for Lineker, he regularly struggled to make the UFC’s 125-pound flyweight limit and opted to move up to bantamweight.

This robbed fans of a likely encounter between Lineker and Johnson for the UFC flyweight championship.

Now, both fighters are again in the same organization, but still competing in different weight classes.

Lineker also shared his thoughts on ONE Championship finally getting to hold an event in the United States, saying that it would benefit the fighters greatly.

“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,” Lineker stated. “It will be very good for us fighters in terms of sponsorship and visibility, among other aspects.”

Lineker fought all over the United States during his time with the UFC but has competed mainly in Asia since signing with ONE Championship.

With his last fight in the U.S. being all the way back in 2019, Lineker stressed that he’d love to get to showcase his talents stateside once again.

“It would be an honor because most of my international fights were in the United States. So, to be fighting again in the U.S. for ONE Championship would be amazing,” he declared.

For now, Lineker’s focus remains on the task that’s in front of him and that’s a rematch with Fabricio Andrade for the ONE bantamweight championship.

“My focus now is to beat Fabrício Andrade. Let’s see after my fight and after the debut of ONE in the United States if any interesting opponents appear to fight in the next edition,” Lineker stated.

Lineker missed weight and was stripped of the title back in their first meeting at ONE Fight Night 3 back in October.

To add to the controversy and chaos, Lineker and Andrade battled to a no contest after an accidental groin strike.

Lineker and Andrade will run it back at ONE Fight Night 7, which is set to be held at the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on February 25 (February 24 in the United States).