Following Dominick Cruz’s injury ruling him out of next month’s UFC 219, Jimmie Rivera has not bee short on fighters willing to take his place
While Rivera has invited bantamweight champion, TJ Dillashaw, to step in for Cruz, John Lineker believes he would be a more realistic candidate:
“I would fight with Jimmie Rivera,” Linker told FloCombat recently. “I’m at the UFC’s disposal to fight him. I’m ready. I want to fight again, and it’ll definitely be a different fight from my last performance against Marlon Vera. I’ll be more in the rhythm and John Lineker will fight as he always has: aggressively. All the time, I am ready. […] I think I’m not far from a title fight and a rematch with [TJ Dillashaw]. I think that my victory over Marlon Vera has put me back into the mix, and I believe that another one or two wins and I’m in talks again to fight the champion.”
Lineker gave his own take on why he can take the title off Dillashaw, claiming that he has a gameplan worthy of beating the current 135-pound champ:
“If I were to fight TJ Dillashaw again I’d put a different pace and rhythm on him. I wouldn’t wait that long for him [to engage first]. He would act first. I believe that if I acted first [instead], I’d be able to time his takedowns and his kicks. I ended up waiting for him a little bit [at UFC 207]. I think that was because I had fought a lot that year and I ended up feeling a bit too tense. But sure enough, if I could do it again, I’d enforce my own rhythm on him more to time his kicks and his takedowns.”
