Norman Parke welcomes Naoyuki Kotani to promotion at UFC Fight Night 46

Norman Parke won’t have to travel too far for his next assignment.

Parke (19-2-1 MMA, 3-0-1 UFC), from Northern Ireland, has been booked for a lightweight fight against Naoyuki Kotani (33-10-7 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who will make his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 46 in Ireland. UFC officials today announced the new fight booking.

UFC Fight Night 46 takes place July 19 at The O2 in Dublin. The entire event streams on UFC Fight Pass in the United States.

Parke in March had to settle for a majority draw against Leonardo Santos at UFC Fight Night 38 in Brazil. Parke lost a point – perhaps controversially – for grabbing Santos’ shorts, and that made the difference. Prior to that, he had three straight wins to open his UFC career, including a decision victory over Colin Fletcher to win “TUF: Smashes” in the lightweight division. After that, he had decision wins over Kazuki Tokudome and Jon Tuck before the draw with Santos.

Kotani comes into the fight riding a 13-fight winning streak. He hasn’t lost in more than four y ears, a split-decision setback to Jorge Masvidal. The Japanese 32-year-old is a finisher – of his 33 career wins, 30 have come by stoppage with 25 submissions. But when he’s gone up against the level of competition known to fans Stateside, he’s mostly come up short. His losses include setbacks to Rich Clementi, Marcus Aurelio, Yves Edwards, Roger Huerta, Thiago Tavares and Dennis Siver.

With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night 46 card now includes:

• Conor McGregor vs. Cole Miller
• Zak Cummings vs. Gunnar Nelson
• Ian McCall vs. Brad Pickett
• Ilir Latifi vs. Tom Lawlor
• Cody Donovan vs. Nikita Krylov
• Phil Harris vs. Neil Seery
• Trevor Smith vs. Tor Troeng
• Naoyuki Kotani vs. Norman Parke

For more on UFC Fight Night 45 and UFC Fight Night 46, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Norman Parke)