Salahdine Parnasse wants Ilia Topuria. He just doesn’t have him yet.
Parnasse’s management team shot down Monday’s reports that a Topuria fight is already booked for UFC 336. In a statement posted to Instagram, the camp said no contract has been signed and nothing is official. The same statement made it clear they would take the fight immediately if the UFC calls. Parnasse’s coach, Stéphane Atch’ Chaufourier, reshared it on his own story.
“What’s certain is that Atch and Parnasse wouldn’t refuse at all,” the statement read, per Bloody Elbow. “If the UFC wants Topuria vs. Salah, it’s a big yes.”
Then came the catch. “But for now, there’s no contract signed and, above all, nothing official.”
The fire started with the X account @mma_dbm, which posted Monday that, per unnamed sources, Topuria would fight Parnasse in the co-main event of UFC 336 in January 2027, the promotion’s first numbered card of the year. The same post claimed Paddy Pimblett is out with an injury and teased main event information it described as “insane but not official.” The UFC has confirmed none of it. A Georgian MMA reporter also pushed back on the Topuria rumor, according to a thread that made the rounds on r/MMA.
Where both men stand
Parnasse is barely a month into his UFC career and already has the lightweight division looking over its shoulder. The former two-weight KSW champion headlined UFC Paris on September 5 against perennial contender Dan Hooker and needed only 155 seconds to knock him out. That one result put him at No. 9 in the media rankings at 155 pounds and on the radar of anyone eyeing Justin Gaethje’s lightweight title.
Topuria, the former two-weight UFC champion, is coming off a loss to Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 in June. He only recently returned to camp for the first time since that fight and is looking for an opponent for his comeback. Bloody Elbow noted that Topuria has been angling for a title shot, which makes a detour against a guy ranked ninth with one UFC fight look like a hard sell from his side of the table.
I like how Parnasse’s people handled this. They didn’t post a cryptic emoji or play coy. They said yes, they want it, and no, it isn’t signed, which is the kind of straight answer this sport could use more of. The original report, on the other hand, leaned on “per sources” from an account that also says it is sitting on main event news it can’t share, and that reads more like a teaser trailer than a booking. Parnasse vs. Topuria would be a terrific fight, a KSW finisher fresh off flattening Hooker against a former champ desperate to climb back into the title picture. But Topuria has his eyes on Gaethje’s belt, and until somebody signs a bout agreement, this matchup lives on an Instagram story while UFC 336 in January waits for a real card.
