John Lineker looked every bit his deadly self in his return to action.
Ten months after suffering a broken jaw in a lopsided loss to TJ Dillashaw, the Brazilian rebounded with a vintage hook-heavy performance to halt Marlon Vera's rise up the bantamweight ranks via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 119 in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
Lineker came into the tilt as the promotion's fifth-ranked bantamweight, and has now won four of five since moving up from 125 pounds just over two years ago.
The 27-year-old's granite mitts didn't fly quite as often as usual, but they kept Vera on the back foot and had him retreating toward the fence regardless. Lineker repeatedly scored points with kicks and winging hooks to the body and head that have become synonymous with his name. The sole break in the attack came in the form of equally thunderous ground-and-pound to close out the second round.
Vera found success with knees and kicks when he could work in the center of the cage, but those opportunities proved few and far between until Round 3, by which time Lineker's vicious body work had already put him ahead on all three judges' scorecards.
The 24-year-old Ecuadorian sees a three-fight win streak snapped and his UFC record fall to 4-3 with Saturday's defeat.