The full fight footage of John Lineker’s victory over Muin Gafurov, which he earned through unanimous decision, was made available by ONE Championship.
With a record of 31-9 in his professional MMA career, Lineker makes his debut in the ONE Championship in the month of October 2019. First up for the hard-hitting Brazilian in ONE was Gafurov, who entered the bout with a record of 3-2 in promotional bouts. Following the completion of all three rounds of competition, the judges all agreed that ‘Hands of Stone’ should be declared the winner.
The video of Lineker’s promotional debut was just recently uploaded by ONE to YouTube with the caption reading:
“Before former bantamweight king John Lineker returns to action against South Korean star Kim Jae Woong on August 4, relive his phenomenal ONE debut against Tajik warrior Muin Gafurov in 2019!” “Relive his phenomenal ONE debut against Tajik warrior Muin Gafurov in 2019!”
Following his victory against Muin Gafurov, John Lineker went on to record two more victories, both by knockout, before earning the opportunity to challenge Bibiano Fernandes for the ONE bantamweight MMA world title. Lineker was able to knock Fernandes out with his strength and aggression in the second round, which resulted in the victory for Lineker.
The unfortunate outcome for Lineker was that he was unable to successfully defend his throne. He failed to make weight for his fight against Fabricio Andrade in October 2022, which led to the loss of his world title. Even though the championship fight didn’t get called off, things went from bad to worse when Andrade landed a kick to the crotch in violation of the rules, which resulted in the fight being ruled a no-contest.
The rematch between Andrade and Lineker took place in February of this year, and Andrade emerged victorious by submitting Lineker in the fourth round to win the ONE bantamweight MMA world championship.
On August 4, John Lineker will compete against Kim Jae Woong in a bout that is part of ONE Fight Night 13, and he will be looking to get his career back on track. Even though Kim’s most recent bout was a loss to Shoko Sato, he is more than capable of defeating Lineker thanks to his talents and experience.
Prime Video users in North America are eligible to watch ONE Fight Night 13 live and for no additional cost.
