John Lineker tested positive for Metandienone and Tamoxifen after losing to Ben Woolliss at ONE Fight Night 41 in March 2026. Metandienone is Dianabol, an anabolic steroid that's been on the banned list since before most fighters today started training. Tamoxifen is an estrogen blocker — the kind you take after a steroid cycle to manage side effects, specifically to avoid gynecomastia.

Two substances, two different jobs. One builds muscle. The other keeps you from growing breasts. Finding both in the same drug panel means this wasn't a contaminated supplement. There was a protocol.

The protocol didn't prevent a loss.

After the failed test, ONE issued Lineker a one-year doping suspension. He's now a free agent, one of six fighters released in the latest round of cuts. The others: Danny Kingad, Kang Ji Won, Eddie Abasolo, Ali Saldoev, and Taylor McClatchie. The promotion called it cost reduction.

Here's the cost that needs reducing: ONE Championship lost $90 million in 2023. Cumulative deficits are past $530 million. Earlier this year, the promotion fired Rich Franklin (VP), Matt Hume (SVP of Competition), and John Sehler (COO). Another 30 to 40 positions went across esports, broadcast, finance, and PR.

The roster had been shrinking before this week. Garry Tonon was released. Adriano Moraes, former MMA world champion, cut in March. Former MMA world champion Zebaztian Kadestam, same month. Xiong JingNan lost her contract when ONE eliminated her weight class. They cut the champion by deleting the division.

Lineker's exit is still its own thing. He didn't just get cut because ONE is broke. He got caught.

Lineker was a legitimate draw during his time on the roster. The bantamweight beat Kevin Belingon, Troy Worthen, and Bibiano Fernandes — that last one for the ONE bantamweight title in 2021. He walked forward and kept coming. He finished his ONE run at 8-4, with the last three fights going against him. The Woolliss loss in March closed out a stretch that had already cost him the belt. When the suspension came, there was nothing to renew.

The Tamoxifen is the more telling detail. By itself it's not performance-enhancing — you take it after a steroid cycle to blunt the hormonal side effects. Finding it alongside Metandienone in a drug test means Lineker wasn't just using, he was managing the use. He had a plan. He still lost and still got caught.

He wasn't the first ONE fighter to test positive this year. Renato Canuto failed for modafinil in April, claiming the supplement had a WADA logo on its website. ONE's anti-doping year was already bad before this.

The other five cuts are financial, not scandalous. Kingad, who upset Demetrious Johnson in a ONE tournament years back, hadn't fought since 2023. Abasolo last appeared in the cage in 2022. These are cleanup cuts — fighters still on the books who aren't fighting. When you need to reduce the payroll fast, you start there.

What ONE is becoming is less cage, more ring. The promotion has one MMA title fight on the 2026 calendar. The rest is Muay Thai and kickboxing, where production overhead is lower and the margins apparently hold. CEO Chatri Sityodtong says ONE is on a path to profitability. Based on the schedule, that path runs through the striking sports.

Submission grappling fans noticed. Tonon's release was the loudest signal — he came over when ONE looked like a legitimate challenger to the UFC and had the budget to back it up. That version is gone. What's left is cutting names, pulling back from MMA, and hoping the Muay Thai cards make the math work.

You can tell Lineker's story as accountability. He used banned drugs, got caught after a loss, got released. Clean ending.

But ONE was already moving this direction before the test came back. The six cuts this week are one more line item in a three-year financial bleed. Lineker's positive gave the promotion a cleaner public reason to cut him — cause-based termination instead of a negotiated exit.

He saved them a phone call. They gave him a more printable reason to leave.

At least somebody had a plan.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

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ONE Championship PED doping John Lineker fighter cuts MMA