Winner Of Pivotal ONE 158 Bantamweight Clash May Face John Lineker Next

The next challenger for ONE Championship’s coveted bantamweight belt will likely be decided this coming June 3rd.

On the main card of ONE 158, which is set to broadcast live from the 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium, No. 1-ranked Kwon Won Il of South Korea will go head-to-head against No. 4-seeded Fabricio Andrade of Brazil in a three-round duel.

The matchup was confirmed last Wednesday, May 25 along with the rest of the fights slated to be part of the aforementioned card.

Both men have been calling for a chance to challenge John Lineker for the world title, and a decisive victory at ONE 158 could furnish a cage encounter with the newly-minted bantamweight division kingpin.

Known by the moniker “Pretty Boy,” Kwon is currently riding high on a three-fight winning streak to bolster his professional record to 11-3 with a 90% finishing rate.

The Korean hard-hitter recently clinched the biggest win of his eight-year run in mixed martial arts so far, stopping former champion Kevin Belingon with a vicious body shot in the second round of their December 2021 face-off.

The highly-touted competitor standing in the way of Kwon is Andrade (7-2), who has turned heads since arriving in the Singapore-based combat sports organization nearly two years ago.

The Brazilian spitfire has been nothing short of spectacular since his promotional debut, having Mark Abelardo as the first victim of his slick submission game before going the distance with ex-Shooto bantamweight titleholder Shoko Sato to pick up a unanimous decision win.

Andrade picked up where he left off by obliterating Chinese prospect Li Kai Wen to end his 2021 and then immediately went back to action this past February to begin his 2022 campaign by thwarting Belingon’s teammate Jeremy Pacatiw.

Following his 97-second demolition Pacatiw, “Wonder Boy” declared himself the uncrowned bantamweight king of the promotion.

With another Team Lakay stalwart in Stephen Loman—who occupies the No. 3 spot in the rankings—waiting in the wings for his shot at Lineker’s intricately-crafted hardware, it seems to be a must for either Kwon or Andrade to turn in an impressive performance at ONE 158.