LONDON – Mick Parkin doesn’t automatically have to be a fan of The Beatles just because he’s from England, but he did perhaps inadvertently channel them.
Parkin borrowed from the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” song “Getting Better” on Thursday and said his training with UFC Fight Night 224 headliner Tom Aspinall has him “getting better all the time.” He’s has been itching to get back to work for a while. Saturday, he gets to do it on the biggest stage in the world in front of his home fans.
Parkin (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), an English heavyweight, will make his promotional debut Saturday on the ESPN+ prelims at UFC Fight Night 224 at The O2 in London against Jamal Pogues (10-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC).
Parkin, like Pogues, came off Dana White’s Contender Series. But rather than get his first UFC fight in March at UFC 286, he had to wait until now to do it in London thanks to an injury recovery. But now he thinks the timing is perfect – and he got to peak with Aspinall.
“I train pretty hard, nonstop, outside of fight camp,” Parkin said at Thursday’s media day in London. “I still train pretty much the same. I mainly just spar harder in a fight camp. But training with the likes of Tom, I’m just getting better all the time. I’ve got like five or six heavyweights who are really high level who are pushing us all the time. All it’s done, is the time off just got us better.”
Check out Parkin’s full UFC Fight Night 224 media day interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.
