John Lineker Flattens Troy Worthen in One Championship on TNT 3 Main Event

John Lineker remains your top bantamweight contender with a THUNDEROUS KO of Troy Worthen! @johnlineker @tntdrama @BleacherReport @BR_MMA @brlive #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ONEonTNT3 pic.twitter.com/DDLzTD4oND

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 22, 2021

Troy Worthen woke up looking at the lights, the latest victim of John Lineker’s handiwork under the One Championship banner.

Lineker wiped out the Sanford MMA prospect with punches in the first round of their One on TNT 3 headliner on Wednesday at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang Singapore. Worthen (7-2, 3-2 One) bowed out 4:35 into Round 1, as he suffered his second defeat in as many appearances.

A sense of pending doom enveloped the cage once Lineker (34-9, 3-0 One) zeroed in on the American’s body with brick fists and bad intentions. Late in the first round, he denied a takedown from an increasingly desperate Worthen, then leveled him with a crushing right hand as he moved forward. Lineker made sure the job was done by delivering one more shot to his supine counterpart before referee Mohamad Sulaiman could arrive on the scene.

In the flyweight co-main event, longtime Pancrase standout Yuya Wakamatsu outstruck former Eternal MMA and Xtreme Fighting Championship titleholder Reece McLaren to a three-round unanimous decision. In doing so, Wakamatsu (14-4, 4-2 One) extended his run of consecutive victories to four.

McLaren (14-8, 7-5 One) was effective in spurts. The Australian grappler swept into top position late in the first round and had begun the process of hunting a rear-naked choke when the bell sounded. From there, Wakamatsu flexed his superiority in the standup with elbows, knees and combination punching; and his takedown defense became more and more of a story as time wore on. He put the finishing touches on his latest conquest in the waning moments of the third round, where he sprawled on a takedown from McLaren, connected with knees from the front headlock position, wheeled to the Aussie’s back and delivered of volley of punches to the head.

The setback snapped a two-fight losing streak for McLaren.

Meanwhile, Rae Yoon Ok leaned on superior standup, an active bottom game and a seemingly limitless gas tank, as he took a unanimous decision from former One Championship titleholder Marat Gafurov in a three-round lightweight showcase. Ok (12-3, 1-0 One) now finds himself on a three-fight winning streak.

Gafurov (18-4, 9-4 One) enjoyed a strong start. He advanced to Ok’s back in the first round, forced the organizational newcomer to carry his weight and piled up points with punches from behind. However, his efforts were of little consequence. Ok countered takedown attempts with elbows to the side of the Russian’s head in the middle stanza, threatened with a triangle choke after being grounded and offered hammerfist-laden offense from his back. Gafurov was on fumes for much of Round 3, where he failed to consolidate takedowns with positional control and wound up on the wrong side of the striking exchanges.

In other action, Li Tao Miao (6-3, 4-2 One) laid claim to a unanimous decision over Ryuto Sawada (14-6-1, 5-2 One) in a three-round strawweight affair; and Nieky Holzken cut down John Wayne Parr with a head kick 1:23 into the second round of their muay Thai bout at 178 pounds.