As Lineker prepares for his battle with the once-beaten Worthen, a look at five of the moments that have come to define him:
1. Inauspicious Start
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 14 graduate Louis Gaudinot rendered Lineker unconscious with a second-round guillotine in an action-packed UFC on Fox 3 flyweight prelim on May 5, 2012 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Gaudinot brought it to an emphatic close 4:54 into Round 2. Before being ensnared in the fight-ending choke, Lineker did some excellent work on the feet, unleashing power punches to the head and body. The shots to Gaudinot’s midsection were particularly devastating, but the green-haired Team Tiger Schulmann export refused to wilt. He scored with a late takedown in the second round and trapped Lineker in the guillotine as he rose to his feet, the highly regarded promotional newcomer leaving his neck exposed. Gaudinot then wrapped the Brazilian in full guard and waited for him to black out. The loss snapped a career-best 13-fight winning streak for Lineker and spoiled his long-awaited Octagon debut.
2. Buying in Bulk
Lineker tapped Francisco Rivera with a guillotine choke in the first round of their wild bantamweight battle on the UFC 191 undercard on Sept. 5, 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Rivera yielded to the choke 2:08 into Round 1. A brief feeling-out period gave way to utter insanity, as the two bantamweights let loose with rights and lefts against the cage before the iron-chinned Lineker cut down the Californian with a left hook and swarmed with follow-up blows. Rivera eventually rose to his feet, only to be met with the guillotine choke. Lineker then secured full guard, tightened his squeeze and waited for the tapout. It marked the brick-fisted Brazilian’s return to the 135-pound division following several weight-cut failures as a flyweight, and it received rave reviews. To this day, it is the second-shortest fight in UFC history to earn “Fight of the Night” honors, only trailing Donald Cerrone's 76-second battle with Melvin Guillard at UFC 150 in 2012.
3. ‘Mayday’ Issues Mayday
In stepping into the main event spotlight for the first time under Ultimate Fighting Championship employ, Lineker punched out Michael McDonald in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 91 headliner on July 13, 2016 at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. McDonald folded 2:43 into Round 1, as he succumbed to strikes for the first time in more than seven years. Lineker bided his time on the outside and waited for an opening. He blasted McDonald with a left hook to the body and rolling right upstairs that resulted in the first of multiple knockdowns. Lineker did not allow the Californian to clear his head. Another left hook dropped McDonald to his knees, and the Brazilian let his hands go until “Mayday” was face down on the canvas.
4. Marquee Attraction
Power and volume gave Lineker his recipe for success in his first assignment as a marquee attraction in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as he eked out a split decision over John Dodson in the UFC Fight Night 96 main event on Oct. 1, 2016 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. All three cageside judges scored it 48-47: Marcos Rosales for Dodson, Sal D’Amato and Glenn Trowbridge for Lineker. Dodson played matador for much of the 25-minute affair, retreating and circling away from the notoriously heavy-handed Brazilian. He landed at a far more efficient clip than Lineker, but his lack of output proved costly. Dodson outstruck “Hands of Stone” 101-94 but threw 132 fewer strikes. The fight was likely won and lost in the middle rounds: Lineker outlanded the Jackson-Wink MMA mainstay in the second (16-15) and fourth (27-22) while equaling him in the third (15-15). No matter how one sliced it, it was undeniably close.
5. Something Less Than Elite
Lineker tried and failed to move into position as a true bantamweight contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 207, where he dropped a lopsided unanimous decision to former titleholder T.J. Dillashaw on Dec. 30, 2016 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. All three cageside judges scored it 30-26 for the favored Dillashaw. Lineker conceded five takedowns in the three-round affair, as his cagy counterpart steered clear of his light-switch punching power by pinning him to the canvas repeatedly. Dillashaw grounded the Brazilian in all three rounds and outstruck him by a 177-51 margin that included a 71-38 spread in significant strikes. He paired positional control with ground-and-pound throughout the 15-minute affair, mounted Lineker in the second round and had grown so confident by the third that he even attempted a calf slicer. Though the brazen maneuver did not achieve the desired result, the writing was on the wall. Lineker rebounded to defeat Marlon Vera and Brian Kelleher in subsequent appearances, but an April 2019 defeat to Cory Sandhagen closed the book on his time in the UFC. He was released by the organization some three months later and signed with One Championship as a free agent.