UFC debutant Jonny Parsons has promised a first-round knockout over Danny Roberts at UFC London on July 22.
The world’s leading fight promotion returns to the English capital off the back of a very successful PPV outing back in March for UFC 286.
Headlining this fight night card will be Tom Aspinall and Marcin Tybura in a heavyweight clash that could determine a future contender.
On the prelims, Parsons takes on British veteran Danny Roberts almost two years after first earning his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series.
The 31-year-old has six knockout wins from eight fights and discussed the exciting welterweight matchup in an exclusive interview with Combat Sports UK.
He said: “I think it’s a great matchup, it’s gonna make for an exciting fight.
“Danny Roberts, he’s in real good shape, he’s a solid southpaw fighter, fights real long. But at the same time, he can also put some pressure and get in the pocket. So, I think it’s gonna make for a really exciting fight.
“First-round knockout. I gotta make up for lost time so I gotta go in there, stay healthy. Sometimes the only way to stop someone from hurting you is to hurt them. I’m going in there with intentions to put him down.”
Jonny Parsons Reveals Reason Behind Layoff Ahead of Debut at UFC London
Parsons was supposed to face Michael Gillmore in his UFC debut in February of last year. However, concussion symptoms caused his team to remove him from the fight and he hasn’t fought since.
He said: “It’s kinda tough to talk about, the biggest thing is that I’m healthy now.
“I feel great, but I was having some really bad concussion symptoms. I really wasn’t able to train without getting headaches and sometimes [I was] just completely nauseated.
“During the camp for the debut I was dealing with that and it just wasn’t getting better. My team as a whole, management and coaches, decided to make the call on pulling me from that fight.”
The welterweight earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021, he went on to reveal that his initial injury came during the buildup to that fight.
He continued: “I’m not gonna point any fingers [but] six weeks out from that Contender Series fight I got knocked out cold. I think that might be right outside the 45-day suspension window that could’ve possibly taken me out of that fight.
“That whole camp, I had to train very specific and around the fact that I had gotten knocked out cold.
“I had to work around that in the fight camp, I actually felt great but there was one day in that training camp for my debut where I took a head kick. It didn’t really rock me too bad then after training I had nausea and a really bad headache and from that point on I was dealing with those really bad concussion symptoms.
“I ended up just having to take a lot of time off from training, I think it was maybe around six months where I didn’t do any training at all.”
Jonny Parsons Full Exclusive Interview
You can watch the full exclusive interview with Parsons ahead of UFC London below:
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Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
