Sunderland UFC fighter Mick Parkin gearing up for second appearance

Sunderland born UFC fighter Mick Parkin is raring to go for his second UFC appearance against debutant Caio “Bigfoot” Machado.

Parkin made his promotional debut against Jamal Pogues on July 22 earlier this year, on the undercard of fellow UK heavyweight and training partner, Tom Aspinall.

Parkin displayed excellent discipline, boxing behind his accurate jab, and landing calf/thigh kicks seeming at will without overextending himself.

Surprisingly, he not only showed impressive ability going forward, but also defensive ability leading to Pogues landing only 27% of his significant strike attempts against Parkin’s 62%.

This allowed Parkin to cruise to a unanimous-decision victory, and moved his perfect record to 7-0.

He’s set to make a return to action on 18 November at the UFC APEX, Las Vegas, on the undercard of Brendan Allen vs Paul Craig.

His opponent Machado boasts an impressive record of 8-1-1, with four knockouts and two submissions to his name.

Machado is likely to be Parkin’s toughest test to date, with a 10% sig. strikes landed difference in favour of Machado coming into this fight.

Speaking to the MMA Fan Show parkin said: “I watched him win the contender series, he’s dangerous because he’s quite wild, he’s not a bad boxer but he swings a lot of big haymakers which is obviously dangerous for a heavyweight.

“So, I feel like I’m a better striker than him, I’ve got to be switched on for the full three rounds, and it could end up being an ugly fight if he keeps coming forward throwing bombs.

“I’ve been working on a few things, and I think with how I fight, it’s a really favourable match up for me.”

That being said, both fighters have extremely high sig strike defence, 72%/67% in favour of Machado again, with “Bigfoot” also having a 100% takedown defence record which Parkin is likely to stack against his 100% takedown completion record.

Both fighters have incredibly close stats in terms of UFC promotion appearances (including DWCS), and fans of the sport are definitely in for fireworks between two extremely skilled heavyweight prospects.

Fans of Parkin won’t have to stay up too late in order to enjoy the fight as the prelims will commence at 7.p.m BST, with Parkin expected to walk around 9.p.m.

Parkin’s fight will be available to watch via TNT Sports on Discovery Plus, or via the UFC Fight pass.