Daniel Cormier heaped praise on Salahdine Parnasse after his successful UFC debut.
Parnasse (24-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) finished veteran Dan Hooker (24-15 MMA, 14-11 UFC) by Round 1 TKO in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 287 headliner at Accor Arena in Paris.
Parnasse headlined a UFC event in his promotional debut in front of his home fans. Cormier says the 28-year-old fully lived up to the hype by quickly putting away a perennial contender.
"You know a guy is highly regarded when his first fight is a main event," Cormier said on his YouTube channel. "He main events against Dan Hooker in Paris, France. This guy is a star there. They love him there. They set him up in a position where he could feel important. He felt important. The reaction to this kid all week,
outstanding. When he hit the curtain walking towards the octagon, outstanding. ... He fought 12 title fights before ever stepping foot inside the UFC octagon. I don't know that we have seen a person have that level of high-level experience going into the octagon since maybe Alistair Overeem.
"I'm not talking (Alex) Pereira with the kickboxing individually. I'm not talking Gable Steveson with the wrestling individually. I'm talking about a person that had competed in that individual sport and MMA at that level for that long. This kid had that, 12 title fights going into that fight last night. The fight starts, obviously the kid is fighting with a level of confidence that you hope to see in guys making their debut, but you don't see that often. He's fighting with this confidence that he feels like he is just too much for Dan Hooker."
Cormier can relate to the pressure that comes when you're a highly touted former champion from another organization. He thinks Parnasse passed that test better than anyone he remembers.
"Dude lands a nasty body kick," Cormier said. "Hooker shows that he's hurt, then tries to compose himself, but it's too late when you've got a killer like that in front of you. Parnasse goes after him, hits him with the nastiest left hook. I mean, it was like chopping and he just crumbled, and he just beat him up on the ground to get the finish. We talk about debuts and impressing in those debuts. I don't think we've seen a more impressive one.
"When a guy comes over from another organization, it's hard. We have seen people from even Bellator really struggle. We saw (Patricio) 'Pitbull' (Freire) struggle and had dominated there. We saw Aaron Pico struggle. Now he has seemed to have corrected the ship in his second UFC appearance and looked amazing. Michael Chandler did good, but then struggled after. We have seen people struggle at times making the jump. I struggled. I thought my first UFC fight was subpar because I was nervous. It was a different platform. It was a bigger platform, and you could feel that whenever you get to the UFC. He didn't struggle at all."
Parnasse respectfully called out former UFC champion Max Holloway (28-9 MMA, 24-9 UFC), and Cormier is all for it.
"He said that his dream fight is against Max Holloway," Cormier said. "And honestly, I'm here for it. If they decide that Parnasse and Max Holloway should fight, I'm here for it. I really am because I believe that when you do that in your debut, you get something big. Now, if Max says no to it, Max is so right in that thought."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier on Parnasse: I don't think we've seen a more impressive UFC debut
