Last weekend, ‘Stormin’ Norman Parke, from Bushmills, Co. Antrim, took one giant step for Irish MMA.
By Fergus Ryan
Having won The Ultimate Fighter series The Smashes, Norman becomes the first fighter this island has produced to reach the UFC on merit.
Norman entered TUF as one of the fancied lightweights. During an early episode of The Smashes, UK coach Ross Pearson described Norman as a UFC calibre fighter even before he’d thrown a punch in the reality show. Norman backed this up by winning every round of his two fights in the TUF house to make it to the final, where he would face Colin ‘Freakshow’ Fletcher.
Ironically, Norman and Fletcher had become great mates by this point.
As an opponent, Fletcher was tailor made for Norman. Though Norman was the shorter fighter, his grappling and speed would more than compensate for any physical deficit. Even though he was younger than Fletcher, Norman had fought more often and possibly at a higher level than his opponent.
The game-plan went straight into action as soon as the first round began. Norman used strikes to close the distance and get inside Fletcher’s reach, cancelling any advantage the taller fighter had at range. From the clinch Norman showed great patience not to snatch for take-downs and used the body lock to work the outside trip take-down almost at will.
By the time the third round came Fletcher was conscious of the takedown threat. Norman, with two rounds probably in the bag, could now let his hands go and underline his performance with some crisp striking combinations in the final round. Norman clinched a decision victory (30-27, 30-27 and 29-28) to become the TUF The Smashes lightweight champion.
Check out Norman’s post fight interview with Karen Bryant for Fuel TV.
My favourite sports quote is in an ESPN ‘30 for 30’ documentary on how Reggie Miller single-handedly beat the New York Knicks in the 1995 NBA play-offs. “There is a time to play and there is a time to win,” he said.
“What you do in ‘Winning Time’; that differentiates between just a regular player and a superstar.”
Last Saturday Norman came through his latest experience of ‘Winning Time’ in spectacular fashion.
At the tender age of 25, Norman is only getting started but he’s now on the right road to becoming a superstar.
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