The first law of fighting in the UFC’s bantamweight division is that you don’t slug with Brazilian banger John Lineker. Michael McDonald found that out the hard way Wednesday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as he was knocked out in the first round by Lineker in their UFC Fight Night main event at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.
“I came here to please the crowd and I think I managed to do it,” Lineker said.
The taller McDonald used his reach well in the early going, but his rushes to exchange with the heavy-handed Lineker were a bad omen of things to come. With a little over three minutes to go in the opening round, the Brazilian struck with a right hand that dropped McDonald. “Mayday” rushed to his feet and was met with a series of uppercuts before getting sent to the deck again. Modesto’s McDonald rose once more and fell once more, but every time he got up, he kept swinging, momentarily tagging Lineker with a flush right that his opponent walked through. That seemed to be enough for McDonald to get his legs back under him, but just past the midway point of the round, another flush left from Paranagua’s “Hands of Stone” dropped McDonald hard, and this time he wasn’t getting up, with the follow-up barrage bringing in Herb Dean to stop the fight at the 2:43 mark of round one.
More from Fight Night Sioux Falls: Results | Lineker drops McDonald in main event | Ferguson survives scare, Boetsch wins | Chookagian wins debut, Alvey makes mark | Nicholson, Yahya take different paths to win | Backstage interviews: John Lineker, Tony Ferguson, Tim Boetsch, Courtney Casey, Sam Alvey | Octagon interviews: John Lineker, Tony Ferguson, Rani Yahya | FIGHT PASS members: Watch early fights on-demand
So what’s next for Lineker? He knows a guy.
“(UFC bantamweight champion) Dominick Cruz, I’m coming for you, baby.”
The No.8-ranked Lineker moves to 28-7 with the win; the No.5-ranked McDonald falls to 17-4.