It hasn’t been the best few months for some of the top Irish professionals looking to advance their careers and/or win titles and this past weekend was no exception.
Northern Ireland’s Norman Parke travelled back down to Brazil, the scene for his dubious ‘draw’ against Leonardo Santos, to take on another Brazilian in Francisco Trinaldo. And like his previous trip it seemed the judges favoured the home fighter as they awarded Trinaldo a split decision win.
Rounds 2 & 3 it was obvious who won. Trinaldo out-struck Parke in the second round but the TUF: Smashes winner bounced back to shut him out in the third with his high level grappling. The first round was the controversial one. I personally felt Parke was the aggressor and kept coming forward, for what should be two positive marks on a judges scorecard, and then he had a couple of takedowns while receiving very little damage.
This loss now marks the 7th major loss for Irish MMA since January with only Joseph Duffy being the only competitor to score a win (on a big stage or in a big fight) during that time with his first round TKO win at UFC 185. The losses are:
May 30th- Norman Parke drops a decision to Francisco Trinaldo at UFC Goiania
May 23rd- Tommy Quinn lost his European Title fight against Lewis Long at M4TC 17
May 2nd- Tommy McCafferty gets KO’d in the main event of UXC III against Teddy Voilet
April 25th- Alan Philpott lost his BAMMA title fight to Ed Arthur at BAMMA 20
April 25th- Ais Daly lost to Randa Markos by decision at UFC 186
March 28th- Conor Cooke submits to Andy DeVent in a BAMMA title fight at BAMMA 19
Feb 21st- Chris Fields loses BAMMA debut in just 23 seconds to Cheick Kone at BAMMA 18
However, there is a silver lining for Irish MMA and a chance of redemption for many of these fighters in the coming months.
Here are some major fights scheduled for Irish MMA fighters:
June 6th: Peter Queally faces Igeu Kabesa at EFC 40
June 13th: Cathal Pendred faces Augusto Montano at UFC 188
June 13th: Chris Fields faces Marcin Prostko at BAMMA 21
July 10th: Catherine Costigan makes Invicta debut.
July 11th: Neil Seery faces Louis Smolka at UFC 189
July 11th: Gunnar Nelson faces John Hathaway at UFC 189
July 11th: Conor McGregor faces Jose Aldo at UFC 189
July 18th: Paul Redmond faces Robert Whiteford at UFC Glasgow
July 18th: Paddy Holohan faces Vaughan Lee at UFC Glasgow
July 18th: Joseph Duffy faces Ivan Jorge at UFC Glasgow