After missing weight on four different occasions during his flyweight UFC run, John Lineker moved back up to the bantamweight division in 2015 and found relative success until he ran into T.J. Dillashaw, who stopped him with a dominant unanimous decision back in December.
Although he lost to the former champion, Lineker is more certain than ever that he made the right move to go up the extra 10 pounds, and he won’t go back down anymore.
“No, I don’t think about dropping to flyweight anymore,” Lineker told AG Fight. “I feel really well at bantamweight. Even if the UFC told me I would get a title fight if I dropped, I’m sure I wouldn’t do it, because I feel really comfortable at bantamweight. I feel a lot stronger and more precise.”
As for the Dillashaw loss, Lineker claims a broken chin suffered early on in the fight greatly affected his performance.
“I ended up getting a broken chin in the first round, with the first high kick he threw. I felt there was something wrong and that left me a little tentative, because I didn’t want to be hit in the same area again. I was afraid he would take me down or kick me, so I just hesitated. He was doing the same movement to throw the kick and for the takedown. So this high kick that broke my chin hindered me a lot in that fight.”
Before the loss to Dillashaw, Lineker was undefeated at bantamweight, beating the likes of Francisco Rivera, Rob Font, Michael McDonald and John Dodson.
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