John Lineker hasn’t competed in MMA for over a year, since his openweight bout in Japan against Shinya Aoki. “Hands of Stone” is set to return to Japan for his kickboxing debut at ONE 172 this Sunday. His aim is to earn money while he waits for his next opportunity in MMA.
Lineker will face former ONE kickboxing champion Hiroki Akimoto in Saitama. This fight comes after Lineker’s participation in muay Thai, where he achieved a 2-1 record over the last six months. As a father of six, the Brazilian fighter emphasizes the importance of staying active and earning.
“I definitely have to work more to provide for the family,” Lineker stated. “My plan is to aim for a knockout in this fight. I am always aggressive in my fights, always trying to avoid decisions, and this time will be no different. I’ll be going for the knockout and aiming to win that [$50,000] bonus.”
Lineker’s initial focus was on reclaiming his ONE title in a trilogy fight against Fabricio Andrade. However, he decided to take kickboxing bouts to earn income while waiting for Andrade.
“It’s about being active and getting paid,” Lineker explained. “It’s better than being sidelined, as otherwise, I would have been inactive for almost a year. I believe ONE is planning the title fight. Fabricio hadn’t defended the title yet, and I wasn’t sure why he was holding onto the belt, but he recently fought and won quickly against Won Il Kwon. I took the opportunity with these fights to make some money and stay active.”
The former ONE bantamweight champion will turn 35 in June and is making plans for his post-MMA career. He recently started a construction company in his hometown of Paranagua. Lineker and his business partner have just finished renovating a building, and he is enjoying this new venture.
“It’s something new to me, something I didn’t know much about before,” Lineker said. “[My business partner] has the knowledge, and it’s been interesting to explore this different field. We have a very demanding career in fighting, and we don’t know how long our bodies will be able to perform at the highest level [laughs], so we need to prepare for the future.”
The MMA veteran, with 49 fights, is uncertain about his kickboxing debut opponent Akimoto, who has a 6-4 record in ONE kickboxing matches. Akimoto once had a five-fight winning streak, which led to a title victory over Capitan Petchyindee.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t follow muay Thai and kickboxing much as I was more focused on MMA,” Lineker admitted, “but I started watching his fights after our fight was scheduled, and I saw he’s very dangerous, very tough. I know little about him, but I saw he’s very experienced in kickboxing.”
“The preparation doesn’t change much for us because we’re always training everything for MMA,” he added. “We are doing more specific training now, of course, so I’ve set grappling aside a bit, but it doesn’t change much in the stand-up aspect.”
“Hands of Stone” achieved back-to-back knockouts in muay Thai fights in 2024, defeating Asa Ten Pow and Alexey Balyko with hooks, before losing a decision to Kulabdam Sor.Jor.Piek Uthai earlier this month. He anticipates his knockout power will translate effectively with 8-ounce kickboxing gloves.
“We use bigger gloves in training, and it’s a bit harder to score knockouts,” Lineker said. “But it’s an eight-ounce glove there, and it’s a very dangerous one. It’s smaller, so I believe that if my hand connects, he will go down just like he would with MMA gloves.”
