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Dan Hooker says the business side of UFC Paris mattered when he accepted a dangerous main event against Salahdine Parnasse. Hooker headlines UFC Fight Night on September 5 at Accor Arena in Paris. The official UFC event page lists the matchup as a lightweight bout, with Hooker ranked No. 10 and Parnasse entering his promotional debut after a title-heavy run outside the UFC. Hooker spoke about the assignment during a Submission Radio interview, embedded below. When asked if he could become the fighter asked to welcome Usman Nurmagomedov if Nurmagomedov reaches the UFC, Hooker first pointed back to the Parnasse deal. “Well, well, well, well. The amount that they’re paying me to fight this French guy. See, this is my initial thought and then they were like, ‘Usman Nurmagomedov’s coming over.’ And I thought, ‘Damn, if they’re going to pay me this much to fight this French guy, then how the [expletive] much are they going to pay me to fight Usman Nurmagomedov?'” Hooker then pulled the answer back to Paris while still making it clear that a future Nurmagomedov assignment would interest him. “But yeah, the task at hand. But that sounds very good to me.” Hooker Frames Parnasse As The Kind Of Risk Others Avoid The risk is obvious. Parnasse is a former two-division KSW champion, and UFC.com notes that he has had 14 title fights in a 25-fight professional career. Hooker also enters Paris trying to stop a two-fight skid, which makes the short-notice style of a high-end debut opponent even more consequential. The interview discussion moved into why established UFC lightweights might pass on opponents such as Parnasse. Hooker agreed with the larger point that fights like this can carry extra money because the downside is real. “No one will take the fight. No one else would like this again.” “No one else wants to take the risk. It’s the same reason as well as the guy to fight Chandler. It’s the same reason why the pay-per-view money to fight Parnasse is ‘cuz none of these other guys in the division want to risk it for the biscuit.” That also explains why Hooker keeps surfacing around bigger lightweight storylines. He already discussed how Usman Nurmagomedov would fit into the UFC title picture, and his Paris week now sits alongside other main-card stakes, including Michael Page settling into middleweight before facing Nursulton Ruziboev. For Hooker, the immediate path is simpler than the larger lightweight chessboard. Beating Parnasse would give him a main-event win over a heavily credentialed newcomer on French soil, while losing would deepen the questions around his place in the division.