By:  | May 3, 2022 10:45 am

Fabricio Andrade has a fight booked. The #4 ranked bantamweight has put pen to paper on a contract and says he will be fighting in June.

Andrade shared a photo of him signing the bout agreement on Facebook:

Number four

Andrade has won four fights out of four for ONE Championship with three of those wins coming inside the distance. He can probably consider himself unfortunate to only be ranked at #4.

He has been leapfrogged by Stephen Loman despite the Filipino only having one wins. One of them came at the expense of Shoko Sato who Andrade had already beaten.

Meanwhile Kwon Won Il remains ahead of Andrade despite having lost to Sato just last year. The Korean has put together three very impressive stoppage wins in succession.

Rising star

Andrade was only picked up by ONE Championship because he was training at Tiger Muay Thai and the promotion had temporarily decided to use Bangkok as a base for its events during the pandemic.

But the Brazilian grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He finished the experienced Mark Abelardo with a second round rear naked choke on his ONE Championship debut.

Six months later he scored a decision win over Sato. The Japanese fighter was on a six fight winning streak and was rumoured to be on the verge of challenging Bibiano Fernandes for the belt.

Big scalp

He had to wait ten months for his next fight but was matched with outspoken Chinese star Li Kai Wen. His opponent had been very vocal about wanting to sign with the UFC but Andrade needed less than five minutes to end those ambitions, finishing the fight in the first round.

He was handed a quick turnaround and took on Team Lakay’s Jeremy Pacatiw two months later. This one didn’t last long either, Andrade folded the Filipino early in the first round.

Next opponent

Andrade had made it very clear he wants to fight for the title and described former champion Bibiano Fernandes as ‘an old man’. He also announced after Lineker beat the long term bantamweight king that he could beat either man ‘easily’.

But the ONE Championship rankings panel does not seem to share Andrade’s enthusiasm for an immediate title shot. With three fighters currently ahead of him in the queue it seems unlikely he will get to face Lineker just yet.

Having dominated ONE Championship’s bantamweight division for the best part of a decade it could be argued that Fernandes deserves an immediate rematch with Lineker. The first fight between the two Brazilians definitely delivered in terms of entertainment.

Winning streak

Won Kwon Il’s recent body of work is extremely impressive although he has lost three of his nine ONE Championship fights. Meanwhile Stephen Loman has the most impressive winning streak having won his last ten.

It will be interesting to see who Andrade is matched with in June. But the 24 year old is surely just one win away from getting that bantamweight title shot he clearly craves.