Northern Ireland’s Norman Parke will get exactly what he has asked for as KSW have officially announced his title rematch with KSW Lightweight champion Mateusz Gamrot will take place on their first ever Irish show, KSW 40, later this year and possibly feature as the evening’s main event.
KSW 40 will take place on Sunday, October 22 inside the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland and will mark the major Polish promotion’s first ever Irish show and only their second ever outside of Poland. Previously KSW 32 was held in London, England back in October 2015.
The scheduled rematch will be a do-over of the pair’s controversial first outing at KSW 39: Colosseum which finished with Gamrot defending his 155lb title via a contentious unanimous decision. Even before the scorecards were read out, there had been questionable moments during the second round, with Parke claiming he was bitten on the fingers by “Gamer” during a grappling exchange. The Pol fired back saying that “Stormin” had forced his fingers into his mouth which is also considered an illegal act.
Since the announcement, UFC veteran Parke has doubled down on branding Gamrot as a “cheater” in a press release and has vowed to win the title on his home turf in October.
“I can’t wait to rematch that cheater Gamrot, he knows what he did in the first fight,” said the 29-year-old Bushmills native. “I went to Poland and beat him in front of 58,000 Polish fans, the judges didn’t give me the fight but everyone knows who won. I’ve more Polish fans now than he does. Now it is time for him to come to my land, into my home. I’m going to beat him, get the win I deserved, and walk away as the new KSW lightweight champion.”
Prior to his previous bout, Parke (23-6-1) had won both of his fights since leaving the UFC, with victories over Paul Redmond and Andrew Fisher on the European stage putting him on KSW’s radar. He had held a 5-3-1 record in the World’s top promotion before being released back in 2016 following three losses from his last four fights.
Meanwhile, Gamrot (13-0), who has spent the majority of his career fighting for KSW, is currently undefeated and has won all 13 of his professional fights so far. He captured the KSW Lightweight title by defeating Mansour Barnaoui in a “Fight of the Night” unanimous decision victory at KSW 35.
