UFC Fight Night 76 results recap: Norman Parke vs Reza Madadi fight review and analysis

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight veterans Norman Parke and Reza Madadi threw down last night (Oct. 24, 2015) at UFC Fight Night 76 inside 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.

After starting his UFC career off with a decent win streak, Parke came out on the wrong end of a pair of split decision losses. In addition to that obvious motivation, a word of words fueled Parke heading into this bout, as the Irishman was looking to make a statement.

Meanwhile, Madadi followed up the biggest win of his career back in 2013 by spending 14 months in prison. Now back on the outside of a cell, Madadi was looking to reassert himself as a top contender.

Madadi, as usual, wasted little time before pushing forward with a takedown attempt, which was easily stuffed by Norman Parke. On the outside, Parke was clearly the clean striker, but Madadi's aggression and threat of the takedown made it difficult for him to utilize that advantage.

After defending a half dozen takedown attempts, Parke was able to create distance and really get his striking going. Attacking with straight punches and nice kicks from the Southpaw stance, Parke landed the best shots of the round to close it.

It wasn't dominant, but Parke clearly won the opening frame.

Parke opened the round with a high volume of kicks, working at a range that Madadi simply couldn't match. In addition, Parke's counter left hand was on point, as he clipped "Mad Dog" with it each time Madadi reached for him with punches.

At about the halfway point in the round, Parke changed his strategy up, using his straight punches to walk Madadi into the fence. From there, Parke picked his shots well and occasionally controlled his opponent in the clinch as well.

Overall, Parke was dominant in the second round, as Madadi accomplished almost nothing in five minutes of trying.

Madadi tried to open up and throw some power in the third round, but he simply isn't the most fluid striker and missed on most of his punches. Despite the relative ineffectiveness of his attack, Madadi's aggression and Parke's slight fatigue did allow him to be slightly more effective.

However, Madadi ultimately needed takedowns to win the fight, and Parke's defense held up expertly. In fact, he even scored a nice double of his own in the middle of the round, though it ultimately didn't matter all that much.

Ultimately, the third round was the slowest and closest of the fight. It certainly wasn't enough to dig Madadi out of the whole the first 10 minutes of fighting had placed him in.

This was a pretty standard Norman Parke performance. It wasn't particularly exciting, but Parke controlled a large majority of the fight with his volume striking and clinch work. While fans may never love him, Parke is a solid fighter without any major holes in his game.

That's enough to beat plenty of fighters.

After this win, Parke is right in the center of the pack alongside a ton of other lightweights trying to climb the ladder. He could face off with any of his peers, but a match with Johnny Case would make quite a bit of sense.

In this bout, Madadi showed that he's still largely the same fighter that he was two years ago. Unfortunately, that's a very flawed combatant. Madadi may have an effective wrestling game and some nasty jiu-jitsu, but his striking is pretty ugly and restricted to just boxing.

Against a well-rounded fighter with above average takedown defense, Madadi will stumble just about every time.

Where Madadi goes from here is an interesting question. Is he good enough to justify the UFC having a convicted purse thief on the roster? Probably not, but the UFC is rarely in a rush to release their European talent.

Either way, the 37 year old's fate will likely be determined in the next week.

Last night, Norman Parke outclassed Reza Madadi en route to an easy decision victory. Can Parke climb the lightweight ranks?

For complete UFC Fight Night 76 "Holohan vs Smolka" results and play-by-play, click HERE!