We had an upset on our hands in the first fight for The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes as heavily favoured Colin Fletcher was unable to deal with his close friend and teammate Norman Parke.
Fletcher looked to use his significant reach advantage and stand on the outside and pick him apart like he’s Dhalsim but that was not the case as the ‘Freakshow’ had Parke in his face the entire time, closing the distance and landing a string of shots.
‘Stormin’ Norman was able to score takedowns and rack up points by doing a significant amount of work on the floor and smartly avoiding any positions where Fletcher could use his long, frame and unique submission skills to take the victory.
In the end Parke did enough to earn a decision with scores of 30-27, 29-28 & 29-28 as he becomes the first British TUF champion since his coach Ross Pearson.
“Words can’t describe how happy I am with this win. It’s been four months in the making and I feel really honoured to be the Ultimate Fighter from this series. I didn’t want to fight a friend, but Colin was the opponent I had to face to reach my goal. The fight played out how I expected with Colin using his reach advantage, but I surprised myself a bit to get the takedown in the first round. From there I think I had Colin’s respect and the fight changed from there. I’m going to go back to Ireland and drink a Guinness and I’ll be ready for the UFC when they call. My dream is to fight at the Mandalay bay and out-wrestle the other wrestlers of the UFC.”
