A bantamweight title fight between champ Bibiano Fernandes and former UFC standout John Lineker will headline February’s Bad Blood card from ONE Championship.
ONE officials announced the Bad Blood main event on Wednesday via press release, following an appearance by ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong on The MMA Hour. The event is expected to take place on February 11, 2022.
No other bouts have been announced for the card thus far.
Fernandes (24-4), a longtime staple of ONE Championship, holds the record for most successful title defenses in the organization at seven. The Brazilian, who fights out of Vancouver, Canada and trains alongside the likes of Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at AMC Pankration, last competed in October 2019, submitting rival Kevin Bellingon.
In fact, Fernandes’ last three fights have been against Bellingon. Fernandes dropped the belt to the Filipino fighter in 2018, then won the title back in an immediate rematch the following year. That might have been the end of their series, given Fernandes also had a 2016 submission over Belingon. However, with their rubber match in 2019 ending due to a DQ care of illegal elbows by Belingon, the fourth fight was booked.
Overall, Fernandes is 3-1 against Belingon, and has just that single loss since 2010.
Lineker (34-9) has won all three of his fights since joining ONE Championship in 2019. Most recently, he scored a knockout on Troy Worthen at ONE on TNT 3 in April of last year. The former flyweight flirted for years with a title shot in the UFC, but exited the promotion off a loss to Cory Sandhagen in 2019, having never fought for gold.
