Norman Parke lived up to his “Stormin'” nickname on Saturday night.
The native of Bushmills, Northern Ireland, U.K. nearly finished Japan’s Naoyuki Kotani late in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 46 bout at Dublin’s O2 Arena. The Kanagawa native got out of the first round, but Parke got the job done in round two.
A big flurry of punches on the ground spelled the difference, as refereee Mac Goddard waved off the fight at 3:41 of the second.
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After the fight, Parke, a former TUF: Smashes winner, had a next opponent in mind.
“Give me a top 20 opponent,” Parke (20-2-1) said. “Diego Sanchez, where you at, punk?”
Kotani, who went 0-2 in a 2007 UFC run, entered the evening on a 12-fight win streak. But Parke controlled the fight from the outset and cut Kotani open with elbows toward the end of the round. He took Kotani down with ease early in the second and poured it on until Goddard stopped the bout.
“I think the game plan was to keep him on the end of the jab,” said Parke, who is 10-0-1 in his past 11 fights. “It took a little bit of time to get my rhythm, once I got my groove, I felt way stronger than him. I wanted to finish, and I’ve done it.”