NORMAN PARKE INSISTS he was more than willing to postpone his next UFC outing by seven days when it emerged that Conor McGregor needed a new opponent for UFC 196 earlier this week.
Parke is scheduled to face Rustam Khabilov tomorrow night at UFC Fight Night 84 in London, but the Antrim native threw his hat into the ring to face McGregor when Rafael dos Anjos sustained a foot injury.
Dos Anjos was due to defend his UFC lightweight title against McGregor in an eagerly-anticipated headliner at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas tomorrow week.
After the news of his enforced withdrawal broke, Norman Parke was one of the first fighters to express his desire to deputise for dos Anjos via Twitter. However, the task was eventually handed to Nate Diaz.
Plenty of top contenders offered their services to take on McGregor, so given his status as an unranked [outside the top 15] lightweight, Parke’s chances of landing the gig were slim. Nevertheless, the 29-year-old from Bushmills explained to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani yesterday that he was very serious about the offer.
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Parke added that there’s no beef between he and the Dubliner, despite the fact that McGregor briefly pursued a clash with him when the reigning featherweight champion first signed with the UFC in 2013.
“Why not?” said Parke, when asked if his offer to fight McGregor was genuine. “Change my bum life, mate,” he laughed. “As my coach says, strike while the iron is hot.
“I know Conor wanted to fight me a long time ago, before at the start, but I’m sure that all blew by. There’s no animosity there whatsoever. I’ll fight anyone, no problem. It doesn’t really matter.
“Every fighter poses a different threat but the Diaz fight was something everyone wanted to see — [including] me personally — and I just watched the press conference last night, which was pretty funny. The smack talk was really good.
“I know Diaz never said too much; I’m not too sure if he was stoned off his nuts. But Conor was always getting the edge in the smack talk, which was pretty funny.”
Following back-to-back losses in the first half of 2015, Parke returned to winning ways with a unanimous-decision victory against Reza Madadi at UFC Dublin in October.
Parke believes he’s capable of pushing for a place in the rankings this year, starting with a win tomorrow night against Rustam Khabilov, who’s fighting for his place on the UFC roster after consecutive defeats against Adriano Martins and Benson Henderson.
“There’s no pressure on me. I’m going in there to let my whole game go. I know there’s a better me to show. I know that in my mind,” Parke said.
“I don’t give a fuck what anyone else says. I know that in my mind, and my team-mates and my coach knows that, so I’m going in to fight my fight, and show that I can be in the top 10 — no problem. I believe I can slot into the top 10 by the end of this year.”
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