John Lineker really wanted to fight Jimmie Rivera.

Lineker wanted it so much that, when the tooth pain began during camp, he dismissed it as no big deal and kept training. He wanted it so much that he still hopped on a plane to Las Vegas for their scheduled UFC 219 encounter, even when, despite all the medicine he’d been taking for it, the pain got significantly worse.

Lineker kept wanting it, in fact, until what he wanted no longer mattered and he was deemed medically unfit to compete, less than a week before the scheduled bantamweight clash.

“I was very sad because of the fight that didn’t happen,” Lineker, now set to compete at UFC 224, told MMAjunkie. “It would certainly have been an important fight for me to get close to the title again.”

Lineker never hid the fact he’d had his sights set on Rivera for a while – even when Rivera’s UFC 219 commitment was still with ex-champ Dominick Cruz. Right after a UFC Fight Night 119 win over Marlon Vera to rebound from a loss to current champ T.J. Dillashaw, Lineker even said in an interview that he’d be ready to step in should Cruz or Rivera get injured.

Lineker pounced on the opening created by Cruz’s withdrawal, not knowing it would end up being his own first time withdrawing from a fight due to injury. It was “a shame,” said Lineker, who nourished hopes of the bout being rescheduled up until the time he had surgery and realized he had quite the recovery ahead.

“As soon as I got to Brazil, I immediately went to get it extracted,” Lineker said. “I took antibiotics for almost a month. And the bacteria ended up getting resistant to the antibiotic I was taking. It went down to two other teeth. So I had to take even harder medication.”

Lineker says the bacteria lodged under his teeth was the same that afflicted Brazilian model Renata Banhara, who had to go through several surgeries and months of painful recovery after an infection stemming from a root canal treatment that went up to her brain.

Lineker’s case, of course, wasn’t nearly as bad. He caught it early and didn’t need to spend time in the hospital. And now, after successfully completing his treatment and feeling 100 percent, the Brazilian is ready to resume his title path.

That starts May 12, at UFC 224, when Lineker (30-8 MMA, 11-3 UFC) meets Brian Kelleher (19-8 MMA, 3-1 UFC) in a pay-per-view main-card bantamweight bout at Rio de Janeiro’s Jeunesse Arena.

One could logically conclude that path got a little longer. After all, Lineker went from meeting a contender in Rivera, who’s ranked No. 5 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings, to the unranked Kelleher, who’s gone 3-1 in the UFC so far.

Despite the fact Kelleher is coming off a big win over ex-champ Renan Barao, it’s fair to think beating him would weigh a little less when it comes to title consideration than beating Rivera and his 20-fight streak would. But Lineker said there was no thinking of Kelleher’s standing in any type of rankings when he said yes.

“It was actually the second time Brian called me out,” Lineker said. “He called me out when he beat Iuri Alcantara and then after bating Barao. I’d been out for a while and wanted to fight.

“When he called me out, I told the UFC, ‘Let’s go, I want to fight. I have five children to raise.’”

Lineker said that with a laugh. But, having gone from fighting four times in 2016 to only being able to perform once in 2017, he admits there were impacts to the inactivity.

“Financially, certainly, but also emotionally,” Lineker said. “So much that it took me a while to return to really strong training. I was out for 10 months, did a fight, and then it happened again. So there is that impact, of relaxing for a long time and then returning to that pace.”

Lineker, however, was eventually able to get past that. And now, back at full force and promising the aggressive brawler that has made him a fan-favorite despite recurring issues with making weight, he returns to an interesting situation atop the 135-pound picture.

Rivera believes there’s no denying his No. 1 contender spot should he get past former WSOF champion Marlon Moraes in a high-stakes UFC Fight Night 131 headliner. Champ Dillashaw and ex-champ Cody Garbrandt are set to rematch for the title at UFC 227. Raphael Assuncao is also a longtime contender and would certainly make an even stronger case with a UFC 226 win over Rob Font, while Aljamain Sterling is calling out Cruz eyeing a shot for himself.

And Lineker, who was on a six-fight winning streak before Dillashaw spoiled it with a unanimous decision, thinks a good win over Kelleher should be enough to save him a spot in this crowded scene.

“I think that a convincing fight, one that shows that I’m ready to fight for the title, I think I’ll be very close to a title shot again,” Lineker said. “I believe that, regardless of rankings.”

Getting his desired outcome – say, a first or second-round knockout – certainly wouldn’t hurt Lineker’s chances. And, when it comes to his goals, the “bold” Kelleher might just end up being a helpful opponent.

“He likes striking, and he has good wrestling too,” Lineker said. “He thinks he can take a punch, as he said, that he’s not scared of my hand. I’m sure it will be a good fight, due to the fact he likes to strike and to his thinking that he can take a punch. …

“It’s like Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until the first punch. So I don’t know if he’ll change his mind after that.”

Clearly, Lineker is optimistic as to what pulling it off might mean for his future title chances. But, when it comes to that, we should fully expect his fists do the talking. After all, things didn’t really pan out that well when it was his mouth doing the work.

“I already asked for Jimmie Rivera and then all of that happened, so I’d rather wait and let the UFC give me my opponent,” Lineker said.

For more on UFC 224, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.