Tom Duquesnoy talks Salahdine Parnasse’s ‘huge future’ ahead of KSW 43

KSW was very proud of its capture of unbeaten French prospect Salahdine Parnasse in late 2017.

The 20-year-old French featherweight made a successful debut with the Polish juggernaut at KSW 41, taking a decision win Lukasz Rajewski. At Saturday night’s KSW 43 card, he is set to take on a huge test of experience when he meets former promotional champion, Artur Sowinski, in Wroclaw.

For a number of years before his UFC signing, Parnasse’s training partner, Tom Duquesnoy, was considered one of the best fighters outside of the promotion. Although Parnasse has yet to gain international notoriety in the sport, “Firekid” is confident his countryman’s skillset will win him widespread acclaim over the next few years.

“He’s going to be a top ten fighter within the next few years,” Duquesnoy told MMA Fighting.

“He’s so young and so impressive — he’s at a really high level already. He is only 20-years-old now, so that forces me to recognize that he has a huge future in the sport.”

Duquesnoy flourished with BAMMA, claiming two of the promotion’s titles, before his eventual signing in the UFC. He believes Parnasse can shine with KSW while also being given top tier tests, as evidenced by his billing alongside Sowinksi.

“It’s a huge league in Poland, they nearly had 60,000 people come out to watch a fight over there, that’s crazy. Even though there is a tendency for us not to know a lot about some of the fighters from the East, there is a really high standard over there,” Duquesnoy said of KSW.

“These Polish guys are amazing fighters and they’re incredibly tough. That’s why I like Salahdine: he takes on really difficult challenges for a guy his age. This time he is taking on a really experienced guy who has fought for big titles in the past.”

Duquesnoy expects a lot more people to be talking about Parnasse by the end of 2018:

“There will be a lot more people talking about him before the end of the year after they see his performances, for sure.”