#WHOATV Fighter Blog: Norman Parke PT. 1

Norman Parke (19-2) is undefeated in the UFC going 3-0 since winning TUF: The Smashes. He is less than a week away from his forth fight in the UFC and he is blogging for us (#WHOATV) and will be sharing his thoughts and experiences from this journey of his to Brazil. Parke is fighting native Brazilian fighter and fellow TUF winner Leonardo Santos (12-3) on the main card of ‘UFC Fight Night 38: Shogun vs. Hendo II’ this Saturday.

Norman Parke Blog 1:

I’m here in San Diego five weeks now and the words “eat, sleep, train, repeat” basically sum up what I have been doing here. I have just been grinding every day now. Oh and I’ve been working on my tan too haha.

Here at Alliance I immerse myself in fighting. I even sleep upstairs in the gym and it isn’t exactly luxury up there. Let me put it like this, it isn’t a place you’d bring your girl back too. A few boys and I cleaned it up recently and it is kind of half decent now.

Don’t get to do much outside training but recently we went training. Myself, Eric, Dominick, Seth, Rolando and few others, we took a three hour drive out to the desert and just camped out there for the weekend. My body was already tuned-up to fight so it needed that weekend off to relax it a little and bring it back down a wee bit. Good having those three days off, there were lots of camps set up there and there were beach buggies, scramblers everywhere and people were racing and having fun. It good place to unwind.

Apart from a camping trip and the occasional trip to the beach I don’t get many chances to unwind. Living in the gym here you are woken up at 6:30 am with mother f**kers banging downstairs hitting the bags and the shocks going up the wall and up through the roof. I love it! That is my wake-up call, reminding me where I am at and what I am here for everyday!

Training for me begins at 10am and I usually train with fighters like Myles Jury, Justin Lawrence, a little guy called Nicky Peamont who is crazy good, Jimmy Jah, Mike Chandler, and a few others. I’m ready to fight right now! You could put him infront of me right now and I would could just go now!

I am feeling great physically. No injuries this time, thank f**k! Last time my knee was pissing me off. I couldn’t drill, I couldn’t even pivot on my knee. It really tested me but I got the win and it has made me a better fighter. This time again I am fighting another bjj fighter and I’ll be coming straight at him.

I do want to go to the gun store though, shoot an AK47 at some targets but I’ll get back to that when I get back from Brazil. I head down there Tuesday but don’t get there until the Wednesday due to some horrible stopovers. My coach from back home (Rodney) and my fiancée (Amanda) land in Brazil literally ten minutes after me so I get to see them when I land.

I can’t wait to fight in Brazil, I actually asked Joe Silva could I fight there. Originally I had asked about UFC in London but the card was already full and after hearing that I asked about Brazil. Now here I am fighting the TUF Brazil winner in his own backyard! I want to feel what it is like being in that position.

I was chatting to Jeremy Stephens about his fight in Brazil and he was saying the crowd have a chant that says “you’re gonna die!” but in Portuguese. I will relish that, I am prepared for them to boo me, it is a test for me and I can’t wait for it!

My next blog will be out in a couple of days. Don’t forget to ‘Like’ my Facebook page and follow me on twitter @norman_parke.

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