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UFC lightweight Norman Parke (file photo). INPHO/Rodrigo Romos

UFC disappointment for Antrim's Norman Parke while Bisping edges out Anderson Silva

Parke suffered his third loss in four outings.

NORMAN PARKE CAME up short this evening in his UFC Fight Night 84 lightweight bout against Rustam Khabilov at the O2 in London.

Khabilov, a combat sambo world champion, mixed stand-up attacks with takedowns and ground offensives to out-point the man from Bushmills on the scorecards.

A team-mate of lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, Khabilov took the first round but Parke rebounded in the second frame, opening up a cut above his opponent’s right eye.

Parke carried that momentum into the third and final round, securing a takedown and taking Khabilov’s back, with a rear-naked choke within touching distance.

However, Khabilov withstood the attack before working to top position, where he rode out the majority of the remainder of the contest in control.

The judges were called upon and the verdict deservedly went to Khabilov on scores of 29-28 across the board.

Having been undefeated for nearly five years, Parke has now lost three of his last four fights, which takes his overall record to 21-5-1 and his UFC record to 5-3-1.

Meanwhile, former middleweight champion Anderson Silva suffered a defeat for just the third time in the UFC when he was out-pointed by Michael Bisping in the main event.

The 40-year-old Brazilian, who was returning from a 12-month ban for a failed drug test, suffered a unanimous-decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47) loss to the English veteran.

Bisping went close to finishing Silva after dropping him with a punch towards the end of the second round, but ‘The Spider’ almost secured the stoppage near the conclusion of the following frame when he punished Bisping with a flying knee while ‘The Count’ protested to referee Herb Dean after losing his mouthpiece.

Silva thought the fight had been stopped for a knockout but it was the buzzer that saved Bisping and he recovered to push on through for the biggest win of his career.

Elsewhere, Finland’s Makwan Amirkhani — who trained at Straight Blast Gym in Dublin for this latest outing — overcame Mike Wilkinson via unanimous decision to pick up his third consecutive UFC win.

UFC Fight Night 84 results

  • Michael Bisping def. Anderson Silva via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
  • Gegard Mousasi def. Thales Leites via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
  • Tom Breese def. Keita Nakamura via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
  • Brad Pickett def. Francisco Rivera via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
  • Makwan Amirkhani def. Mike Wilkinson via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
  • Davey Grant def. Marlon Vera via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
  • Scott Askham def. Chris Dempsey via knockout (punch and high kick) after 4:45 of round one
  • Arnold Allen def. Yaotzin Meza via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
  • Krzysztof Jotko def. Brad Scott via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
  • Rustam Khabilov def. Norman Parke via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
  • Daniel Omielanczuk def. Jarjis Danho via majority technical decision (29-29, 29-28, 29-28) after 1:31 of round three
  • Teemu Packalen def. Thibault Gouti via submission (rear-naked choke) after 0:24 of round one
  • David Teymur def. Martin Svensson via TKO (strikes) 1:26 of round two

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