THEY’LL BOTH BE competing this weekend at UFC Fight Night 76, but the relationship between Joe Duffy and Norman Parke goes back five years.
Parke will face Reza Madadi this Saturday night at Dublin’s 3Arena, while Duffy features in the main event against Dustin Poirier.
Before either of them registered on the radar of the UFC, Duffy and Parke collided in March 2010 in Newport, Wales.
Duffy, who hails from Donegal, emerged victorious via first-round rear-naked choke against Parke, but the pair have remained friendly ever since.
Ahead of this weekend’s event, we asked Parke if a rematch with Duffy is something he’s aiming for at some point in the future. The Antrim native insists that big fights are always on his agenda, but avenging previous losses is not an incentive.
“That fight was my first cut down to lightweight — I think it was the same for Joe — so that was new for me at the time, and going into the fight my warm-up was terrible. I felt like shit and I was actually going to pull out of the fight on the day,” Parke said.
“For the first time in my life — even though I had won 10-in-a-row at that stage — I went into a fight thinking I was going to lose.
“For me, I’d never like to rematch someone for the sake of revenge or anything like that. I’d only like to rematch someone if it happens to be that the person is someone I need to beat in order to move forward.
“I did say to him back then that I’d love to fight you one more time, and he goes: ‘We’ll both be in the UFC one day and we’ll fight there’, and I laughed. But I never look that far ahead. The only thing I’m focused on at the minute is getting the job done against Reza Madadi.”
Parke is also backing Duffy to overcome Dustin Poirier in Saturday’s headliner: “It’s a tough fight to call but I’m going for Duffy. Probably by decision, but then again I know Poirier is a bit weak around the chin and Duffy has good striking. Duffy is very, very good on the ground too, and he’s always relaxed, so I feel Duffy has the edge.”
Wife? 21? Really?
The wags are getting them locked down young
When I was 21 I was blowing shit up in the microwave ala Ian Henderson in a student house
Anthony Martial is married with two kids at 19. She knew…
Coutinho been married since he was 19 too I believe.
Check her out, she’s an absolute lasher. I’d be wifing that at 21 as well.
Image of Bale
Let’s hope he will be as good as Bale !
They say supposedly there’s around 7 people in the world who look exactly like you..
Yip. Lucky enough that mine is Ryan Gosling
:D
He’d make more money as an impersonator
Or even league one. Being on the books at a top prem club then going to league two is a massive drop down
And probably offers us an insight into the actual level that this fella is at. He’s not going to league 2 for any other reason than he didn’t have any other options. He might rebound in a few years but I’ve a feeling that looking like Bale will be as close to a top footballer that he may ever be and I mean that as no slight against him, the odds of making it at the top level of football are in the high millions.
Jamie Vardy. ….
Surely he could have been picked up by a championship club rather than having to drop down to league 2
Why would that be?
You would think that. But here we are.
And york city are in last place
Plot twist, Kenny is actually playing for Madrid and Bale is off to the metropolis of York.
So it was Kenny who got Wales to euro 2016!!!
Give him time, Alan Judge was in a similar situation when Blackburn. Now PL teams are interested in signing him.
Hope ha can play like bale