FOR PAUL REDMOND, Friday night’s meeting with Norman Parke is a contest to determine Ireland’s best lightweight. What it’s not is a battle between north and south.
“Fucking ridiculous,” says Redmond, referring to a recent press conference in Belfast where the BAMMA 28 headliners were asked by a reporter about an apparent political element to their fight being “a big deal.”
From a promotional perspective, that narrative might pique interest — but for the wrong reasons, as Parke has pointed out. They might hail from opposite sides of the border, but the build-up to the clash of Redmond, who hails from Dublin, and Antrim native Parke has been nothing but cordial.
To that end, it’s a much more accurate reflection of the modern relationship between citizens of north and south, irrespective of their background.
“I’ve known Norman for a long time and we’ve always gotten along really well. We’ve always wished each other the best before fights and stuff like that,” Redmond explained to The42.
“This is just two lads going in to compete against each other. There’s no animosity, there’s no malice, but we’re both going out there for the win. We’ll both go for it, but then we’ll leave it in the cage and have a drink together afterwards.
“It was a reporter that asked the question from some radio station, apparently it had been sent in by a listener. But he should have screened that question himself and not bothered to ask it. He should have known better.
The north versus south thing shouldn’t come into it. Who gives a bollocks about that anymore? It’s 2017.
Tomorrow night’s bout at the SSE Arena, which headlines BAMMA’s inaugural event in Belfast, will be a clash of two former UFC fighters. Redmond (11-6) was released by the organisation following a 0-2 run in 2015, while Parke (22-5-1) was given his marching orders last year despite going 5-3-1 in the octagon.
Redmond is aiming to prove that his best days are still to come. The 30-year-old Team Ryano product has had plenty of big wins in his career already for leading organisations like Cage Warriors and BAMMA, but getting the better of Parke would represent his most significant scalp to date.
Redmond said: “If I can pull it off I think Norman will be my biggest win. Norman has fought some of the best guys out there. The biggest name I can think of is Gleison Tibau. Norman was unlucky not to beat him and then it came back that Tibau was juicing.
“He has dropped a couple of losses that I wouldn’t even count as losses with a few of the decisions. I genuinely still think Norman should still be in the UFC. He was really hard done by, in my opinion. This is the biggest fight of my career, bar none, even including the ones in the UFC.”
Tickets for BAMMA 28, which is a co-promotion alongside Bellator 173, are available here.
