John Lineker vs Fabricio Andrade – Prediction & Preview
Death by a thousand cuts.
A rematch of an all time classic ONE FC bout takes place on Feb 11 2023. John ‘Hands Of Stone’ Lineker and Fabricio ‘Wonder Boy’ Andrade are set to meet again inside the ONE Championship circle.
The first fight was dominated by Fabricio Andrade’s snappy jab, which he used at length to great effect against the stockier John Lineker. Andrade employed a plethora of tactics that utilized his massive height and length advantage, before the fight was called off due to a body-shot followed by an illegal groin strike.
Retrospective – How was the first fight going?
In the first round of the first fight, Andrade played a very patient game, overcoming the threat of Lineker’s inside leg kicks and establishing his long, stabbing jab. Andrade used this jab to establish rhythm and drip-feed expectations to Lineker, before feinting and setting up other techniques, like intercepting knees and headkicks.
Andrade found a lot of success, attacking the center line and denying Lineker the space he needed to crowd his taller opponent. It’s hard for Lineker to have an answer for this sort of strategy when he stands 5 inches shorter, with much shorter limbs to boot.
Lineker managed to adjust in the second round, and used his grit and experience to drive Andrade to the cage, engaging in clinches and phonebooth striking to take range out of the equation. He was still being pieced up by the fading Andrade, however, and his Brazilian opponent rallied in the third round. This third round was when Andrade landed a beautiful knee to the midsection that appeared to have Lineker on skates, before being followed by a groin strike that had the bout called off.
It’s a shame the first fight ended the way it did, because Andrade was comfortably on his way to a TKO victory before the groin strike.
Andrade vs Lineker – Prediction
Andrade has every physical advantage in this fight (other than raw power), and he’s young enough to still be finding his ceiling. A better motivated Andrade, with honed tools and a gameplan to capitalise on what found him success in the first fight, should find even more success in the rematch. This means ranged attacks, stabbing jabs, and down-the-pipe kicks and knees to keep Lineker second guessing.
As long as Andrade avoids phonebooth brawls and grappling exchanges with Lineker, he should be able to play a war of attrition and dispatch him in the second or third round.
The Fight Fanatic picks – Andrade by Finish
So what do you think? Agree or disagree? Drop a comment below and we can discuss.
