ONE Championship bantamweight champion John Lineker has been stripped of his title.
The ONE Championship bantamweight title is now vacant. Leading up to the ONE on Prime Video 3 event set to take place on Friday, champion John Lineker has been stripped of his title. Lineker failed to make the ONE Championship bantamweight limit of 145 pounds for his fight against Fabricio Andrade and was in turn removed from his position as champ. The news was first reported by SCMP.
The nature of the miss was a bit strange because of the unique ONE Championship’s weigh-in protocols. Fighters must make the weight limits for their perspective weight class but also pass a hydration test at the same time. Lineker passed the hydration test at .0229 the first time he weighed in but came in heavy at 145.5 pounds. He was given time to cut some more but went the opposite way with it.
Lineker wasn’t alone, a total of seven fighters failed to make successful weight on the first try. On the second attempt, Lineker passed the hydration portion again at .0156 but weighed in at 145.75. He was subsequently stripped of his title on the scale. Along with Lineker, Jeremy Miado, Uali Kurzhev, and Lea Bivins have also failed to make the hydration or weight for this event.
John Lineker has been fined a portion of his purse and stripped of his ONE Championship title
This was to be Lineker’s first defense of the ONE Championship belt. He won it back in March when he defeated Bibiano Fernandes by second-round KO at ONE Championship: Lights Out. Lineker’s fight against Andrade will go on as planned but he will be fined 20 percent of his fight purse. Lineker will also not be eligible to be crowned the champion if he were to win. Andrade will be the champion if he is victorious.
Lineker’s manager Alex Davis provided a statement to MMA Fighting about the situation.
“When a fighter doesn’t make weight at ONE, he goes back to square zero because he has to make weight and pass the hydration test,” he said. “That mistake happened because his scale was off in his room, lighter than the official one. When that happens, you have a second attempt to make weight but you have to pass the hydration test again. He couldn’t do it. Having two attempts to make weight in three hours is a bit complicated. That’s the rule and we’ll respect it. Fabricio accepted the fight, and we’ll see John’s situation after the fight.”
During his UFC career, Lineker missed weight on several occasions in multiple weight classes.
ONE on Prime Video 3 will take place on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
