John Lineker had to battle through adversity in the first round against Jose Maria Tome at UFC 163 this evening, but rallied in the second round to claim a TKO victory.
Maria showing lots of lateral movement to begin this one. Lineker scores with a few early punches though.
Maria attempts a kick and Lineker connects on the counter and drops him to the mat momentarily, but he seems to be ok.
Spinning backfist from Maria and it catches Lineker by surprise and he’s still on his feet, but hurt. Maria presses forward with more offense and Lineker’s off-balance and in real trouble here early in the fight.
Maria perhaps could have done more to pressure Lineker though as he gets a little time to clear the cobwebs. They hit the mat and Lineker’s able to work back up to his feet and clinches to buy himself some more time. Maria’s then deemed to have thrown an illegal blow to the groin and Lineker gets time to recover.
Back to it they go. Lineker clips Maria with a hook that puts him a little off-balance. With 10 seconds to go in the round, Lineker’s able to dump his opponent to the mat, but there’s not enough time to do anything with the advantageous position.
Onto round two and Maria looks to clinch up, but Lineker responds with a nice knee to the midsection. Maria then attempts a takedown, but it’s easily stuffed and after a brief scramble they get back upright.
Maria attempts a kick and appears to hurt his leg, possibly his knee, in the process. He tries to follow up with a punch and his leg doesn’t support him, resulting in him tumbling to the mat.
Lineker quickly seizes on the opportunity with a barrage of blows on the mat and Maria just covers up and turns his back resulting in the referee stepping in to call an end to the fight, handing Lineker the TKO victory at 1.03mins of round two.
