John Lineker-Fabricio Andrade Grudge Match Marred By Unintentional Foul

Fabricio Andrade seemed to be on his way to capturing the vacant ONE bantamweight championship until an accidental foul took a likely career-defining moment away from him.

The 25-year-old Brazilian hard-hitter squared off against compatriot and fellow knockout artist John Lineker in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 3, which emanated live from the 16,000-seater Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday, October 22 (Friday, October 21 in the United States).

As the only man eligible to walk away with the gold-plated belt around his waist following Lineker's mishap on the scales that saw "Hands Of Stone" relinquish his status as champion right there and then, Andrade pulled out all the stops for nearly three rounds of action.

From the get-go, Andrade leaned on his edge in length and size as it allowed him to torch Lineker with unforgiving kicks to the body and solid jab-straight combinations that created a huge welt under the right eye of his opponent.

As Andrade appeared that he had all the momentum after delivering a clean knee strike to the midsection in the back half of the third round, the foul occurred soon afterwards.

A follow-up knee strike inadvertently landed flush to the groin of Lineker, who winced in pain on the mat.

Lineker was given five minutes to recover, but the proof of his dire situation became more apparent when he pulled the groin protector out of his trunks to show the responding officials that the impact of the illegal-but-unintentional blow broke the shielding outer layer of the cup.

Referee Olivier Coste had no other option but to wave the match off and declare it a no contest.

A rematch will likely be in order due to the bout's controversial ending.

Undercard Results

Lineker and Andrade may have left Kuala Lumpur's state-of-the-art showground empty-handed, but ONE on Prime Video 3 still witnessed coronations of new world champions under two different sports.

In the co-headliner, Regian Eersel—the current ONE lightweight kickboxing champion—accomplished the rare feat of becoming a two-sport titleholder by adding the weight class' inaugural Muay Thai championship to his hardware collection against Sinsamut Klinmee.

Both men came out of the gates firing, blasting each other with dynamite strikes at the center of the cage from bell to bell.

Although Sinsamut boxed beautifully behind smashing combinations, it was Eersel who effectively utilized his arsenal to keep his Thai foe at bay.

After five momentum-shifting rounds of action, Eersel proved to be the better man with the more efficient offense all throughout the bout, impressing the judges just enough to bag the razor-close split decision and the ONE lightweight Muay Thai belt.

On the other hand, Kade Ruotolo showed why he is at the crest of the awe-inspiring wave in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world as he submitted sambo practitioner Uali Cursive to claim the first-ever ONE lightweight submission grappling belt via a heel hook submission at the 4:26 of their 10-minute tilt.

The win likewise earned the elated Ruotolo a US$50,000 performance bonus from company head honcho Chatri Sityodtong.

Under kickboxing rules, featherweight Thai striker Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong went back and forth with a game opponent such as Mohammed Boutasaa over the course of three rounds to eke out a hard-fought unanimous decision victory.

Opening the main card of ONE on Prime Video 3, Shamil Gasanov put the organization's featherweight MMA bracket on notice as he submitted No. 2-ranked Kim Jae Woong with a rear-naked choke in the first round.

To cap off the preliminary portion tasked to build up excitement and anticipation, Filipino spitfire Jeremy Miado figured in an absolutely dominant showing by stopping No. 5-ranked strawweight MMA contender Danial Williams via technical knockout in the third round of their 57.6-kilogram catchweight showdown.

Miado kept a constant attack on Williams from the opening bell, bringing the fight to the Australian at every opportunity possible.

The fight-ending sequence came when Miado unloaded a myriad of strikes that prompted referee Herb Dean to save Williams from further damage.

Meanwhile, Taiki Naito put forth a workmanlike performance, staying one step constantly ahead of opponent Amir Naseri to nab the clear win on the scorecards in a flyweight Muay Thai bout.

In a bantamweight Muay Thai scrap, Asa Ten Pow elected to throw in the towel after the first round where he was the subject of Mehdi Zatout's nearly three-minute onslaught that earned the Algerian the victory and the $50,000 performance bonus.

Noelle Grandjean began the festivities on an exciting note as she thwarted fellow debutante Lea Bivins via technical knockout with 59 seconds remaining in the first round of their 53-kilogram catchweight MMA contest.

Nissi Icasiano is a sportswriter, analyst and editor from the Philippines. He started his professional career in 2013. He has also written for various media outlets such as Rappler.com, ABS-CBN, Tiebreaker Times, Philboxing.com, MSN.com, South China Morning Post, The Phnom Penh Post and the International Business Times. In 2017, he started a career as a Combat Sports Analyst for television and radio, appearing on various news shows for ABS-CBN, GMA, TV5, Radyo Singko 92.3 News FM, PTV 4, Business World, Radyo Pilipinas 2 and Bombo Radyo Philippines. He practices boxing at Tiger City Boxing Gym whenever he is not writing.