After nine Octagon appearances and a winning stint on The Ultimate Fighter: Smashes, 29-year-old Irishman Norman “Stormin” Parke has been released by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Oddly enough, the Lightweight announced the news himself this Friday (April 1) via Facebook:
I just wanna say a huge thanks to the ufc for giving me the great opportunity to compete at the highest level in combat…
Posted by ‘Stormin’ Norman Parke on Friday, April 1, 2016
Parke leaves a 5-3-1 (NC) promotional record behind with keys defeats coming to veterans Gleison Tibau, Francisco Trinaldo and most recently Rustam Khabilov, who defeated the Irishman via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 84. Unfortunately, Parke is probably more known for throwing a handbag at Reza Madadi at the UFC Fight Night 76 weigh ins (shown below) than he is for his rather lackluster performances inside of the cage.
Even with a winning record and a fairly promising core set of skills, UFC still pulled the plug on Parke. It just goes to show that winning fights isn’t the defining factor. Fighters at this level need to finish.
Just ask former UFC Heavyweight Jared Rosholt, who was also released from the promotion this week.