John Lineker books Muay Thai debut for ONE Championship in January

Former ONE Championship bantamweight titleholder John Lineker will test his “Hands of Stone” in a different sport on Jan. 18 when he faces Liam Harrison in a Muay Thai match at ONE Fight Night 18.

The card takes place at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and airs live on Amazon Prime Video in the United States. Multiple people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the news to MMA Fighting following a report by MMAjunkie.

Lineker improved to 37-10 under MMA rules with a decision victory over Stephen Loman this past September. He’s won back-to-back bouts since dropping his ONE title to Fabricio Andrade. The former UFC fighter scored knockouts in four of his six appearances under the ONE banner.

Lineker’s recent nemesis in MMA, Andrade, also gave it a try recently under a different rule set in ONE, losing via second-round knockout to Jonathan Haggerty for the kickboxing championship earlier this month.

Harrison has competing in Muay Thai and kickboxing for decades, and has won two of four Muay Thai matches inside the ONE ring since 2019, both by first-round knockout. The 38-year-old English striker hasn’t competed since August 2022, when he came up short against ONE Muay Thai champion Nong-O Gaiyanghadao.