In his first fight in a year, former UFC standout John Lineker put himself in the ONE Championship title picture with a second-round TKO.
Lineker (33-9) took out former ONE bantamweight champion Kevin Belingon (20-8) with a blistering stoppage worthy of his “Hands of Stone” nickname. Lineker drilled Belingon with a stiff left jab, then came behind it with a right uppercut that put Belingon on the canvas against the fence.
With Belingon covering up, Lineker delivered several quick left hands that forced the referee to jump in for a TKO at the 1:16 mark of the second round. The fight was the ONE Championship 120 main event at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. The bout took place Oct. 30, but aired on a tape-delay basis Friday.
The win was Lineker’s second straight after moving to ONE from the UFC in 2019 after a loss to Cory Sandhagen. Lineker was in the UFC for 16 fights and went 12-4 as a flyweight and bantamweight. His career there was marked with several instances of weight misses in both divisions.
But as a featherweight with ONE, he now has the stoppage of a former champion to go with his promotional debut – a decision over Muin Gafurov in October 2019.
Belingon dropped his third straight fight. It was his first bout after three straight fights against Bibiano Fernandes. In November 2018, he beat Fernandes with a split decision to win the bantamweight title. But he lost the belt to him in March 2019 when he was disqualified for illegal elbows. When they rematched in October 2019, Fernandes submitted him to retain the belt.
Check out highlights from the main event and co-main event above.
ONE Championship 120 results included:
- John Lineker def. Kevin Belingon via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:16
- Geje Eustaquio def. Min Jong Song via unanimous decision
- Murad Ramazanov def. Hiroyuki Tetsuka via unanimous decision
- Fan Rong def. Yuri Samoes via unanimous decision
- Hiroshi Minowa def. Lito Adiwang via split decision
