The ONE Fight Night 14 face offs took place this morning and Stephen Loman is looking absolutely ripped. The Filipino bantamweight is in the shape of his life ahead of his fight with John Lineker.
There was an exodus of fighters from Team Lakay earlier this year. Some of the camp’s biggest stars like Eduard Folayang, who also fights tomorrow morning, and Kevin Belingon departed but Loman stayed put.
Judging from these pics the 28 year old’s training camp can’t have gone too badly. Loman looks like he is ready to compete in a body building contest:
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Getting naked
Loman left it to the very last minute and needed to get naked in order to make the weight. He did it with around three seconds to spare and the first person to congratulate him was Lineker.
It was an impressive display of sportsmanship from the veteran. Lineker would have taken 20% of Loman’s purse if the Filipino had missed weight but despite the financial incentives he clearly wanted his opponent to do it.
Lineker has had his own issues with the scales, missing weight for multiple UFC and ONE Championship fights. So he had his reasons for being sympathetic but it was still a touching display of camaraderie between two bantamweights who were set to do battle in a couple of days:
Down to the wire ⏱ @johnlineker and Stephen Loman make weight in a nail-biting finish to the ONE Fight Night 14 Weigh-Ins & Hydration Tests 🙌#ONEFightNight14 | Friday at 8PM ET
🇺🇸🇨🇦 Watch live on Prime 👉 https://t.co/Il4tPmkSbR pic.twitter.com/CzplsqgypN— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 28, 2023
Title eliminator
Although nothing has been announced officially this has all the makings of a title eliminator. Loman has won all three of his ONE Championship bouts and is coming off a win over former bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes.
Meanwhile Lineker got back to winning ways by stopping Kim Jae Woong at ONE Fight Night 13 last month. He will be looking to secure a trilogy bout with newly crowned champion Fabricio Andrade.
Based on the video it seems that Loman made weight with eight seconds remaining within the allotted time window. This must have been a psychological boost for the Filipino because he was seconds away from losing his title shot on the scales.
The top end of the card might consist exclusively of female fighters. But there is a bantamweight banger further down and by the looks of it both Loman and Lineker are in shape, on weight and raring to go!
