Norman Parke welcomes the challenge of fighting Conor McGregor but admits they are on ‘different paths’

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

While all eyes will be on Conor McGregor this Saturday night in Dublin, another notable Irishman will also be competing on the main portion of the fight card.

TUF winner Norman Parke will take on Naoyuki Kotani in one of the feature fights on the main card in Dublin, but many of the questions directed at him all week have not been about his durable opponent, but about his fellow Irishman Conor McGregor and whether the two will cross paths in the future.

While Parke believes the bout could eventually come to fruition, he doubts their paths will cross in the near future unless McGregor choses to move up and complete in the lightweight division.

“Possibly, that could happen but right now I think we’re on different paths,” Parke told MMAPlus.co.uk. “The UFC have got their way for Conor and I’m on my path. If he wants to move up and compete at lightweight, I’m more than welcome to the challenge. If you think this show sold out quick, Croke Park would sell out ten-times quicker. It would be a very good match up of styles, Conor is a very good fighter and I’ve always followed him, from the start I knew he was going to make it to the big time and I wish him all the best in his journey.”

Transcription taken from MMAPlus.co.uk.

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About the author

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.