Two of ONE Championship’s best bantamweights faced off at ONE Fight Night 14, with ex-champ John Lineker, ranked #1 in the weight class, taking on #2-ranked Stephan Loman.
The winner of Friday’s promising 135lb affair would be in prime position to face champ Fabricio Andrade, who had faced Lineker on two consecutive occasions before finally claiming the ONE bantamweight belt.
Loman opened Friday’s action (or Saturday locally in Singapore if you prefer) with some spinning action, but appeared wary of Lineker’s obvious advantage, his power. When he could plant his feet, Lineker chucked right hands, one after another after another. Just over a minute in, Loman then changed things up, blasting into a takedown and landing it.
Going to work in half-guard, Loman went body-head repeatedly, and found space to drop a few elbows. Lineker would work his way to the fence, looking to post up and power out of a bad spot. Loman stayed on him, however, and eventually dragged him back down, briefly taking the back. John Lineker had other ideas, reversing and getting on top for a minute before Loman scrambled to the fence, and then back to his feet.
The remainder of the round would play out on the feet, though Lineker caught a kick and nearly dumped his opponent at one point.
Round two found Lineker walking his opponent down, looking to close the distance and get in range. Loman played with fire a bit, firing a spinning kick that was nearly caught. He also chopped at Lineker’s legs, flashed a takedown that he tought better of, then went high with another kick. That in turn led to a clash of heads, with Lineker getting the worst of it, but he was okay to fight on.
Just past the midway mark of the round, however, an eye poke also absorbed by Lineker halted the action. He took less than a minute to recover, then the pair got going again, trading immediately off the restart. Loman would eventually shoot, but was too far out. At the same time, keeping his distance management on point kept him out of range of Lineker’s power. The Brazilian walked Loman down at the end of the round, while ref Herb Dean urged the pair to keep fighting.
in the top half of the third, Lineker avoided another takedown attempt. But it was Loman who took over leading the dance, pressing forward, walking towards Lineker. Another foul followed, the third from Loman, as Lineker was hit low. That completed an unfortunate trifecta for Stephan Loman, with the earlier head butt and eye poke. Lineker was good to continue, however.
In the final two minutes, Loman went hard after a takedown. But he put himself out of position and off-balance doing so, and allowed Lineker to get on top. Loman scrambled out however, negating any advantage Lineker may briefly have had. “Hands of Stone” was still taking some big swings, but couldn’t connect with anything significant. Certainly not anything fight-ending. Loman tried for another takedown, and Lineker played matador, raising his arms and waving his opponent in. They would fight it out to the bell, hug it out, then head to the scorecards — with Lineker coming away with a unanimous decision win.
Official Result: John Lineker def. Stephan Loman by unanimous decision
