After WSOF 22, Rousimar Palhares is all out of innocence

With MMA’s lawless origins, it would be tempting to call Rousimar Palhares a throwback to other times. But the truth is, even eye gouging was too inhumane for the original spectacle. All the way back in the early-1990s it was understood that sight, as a coordinating sense, can be useful in hand-to-hand combat. Digging eyeballs from the socket has never been encouraged by the sanctioning bodies or really anybody not directing cult horror films.

Yet in 2015, well into the era of unified rules and sophistication, there was Palhares trying to dig his thumbs into Jake Shields’ eyes. This is a new twist in the Bizarro World of Palhares. In the second round of his welterweight title defense at WSOF 22, Palhares had to be warned by none other than referee Steve Mazzagatti to keep his fingers out of Shields’ orbs. Palhares, as he is known to do, met the caution with a look of confusion before proceeding to do what Palhares does best.

You know…win controversially.

By the third round, “Toquinho” was torquing Shields’ arm off his shoulder in a Kimura, and Shields tapped quickly, obviously and with no small amount of panic. Palhares, never one to accept a man’s mercy so easily, held on for an extra beat or two. It might not have seemed entirely malicious if this was the first time. But it wasn’t. To go along with the new twist of gouging eyes, Palhares lived up to his villainous self by once again holding a submission just past the threshold of proper sportsmanship.

That’s the part that requires audacity. And that’s the part that the Nevada Athletic Commission and WSOF should focus on when they review the fight. That when it comes to holding submissions too long, Palhares is incorrigible.

As Shields pointed out at least 30,000 times leading up to the fight at Planet Hollywood on Saturday night, Palhares is a dirty fighter. That Shields made the fact a prominent feature in every interview he gave made it so the follow-up questions for Palhares heading in centered on a variation of this question: “Does it bother you to be called a cheater?”

Turns out it doesn’t.

Palhares, apparently, is as dense in the head as he is in body. He was suspended at UFC 111 for holding onto a submission too long against Tomasz Drwal. He was cut from the UFC when he did it again against Mike Pierce. WSOF’s matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz has defended Palhares as his champion and as a redemption case for the last two years, even as he gave Steve Carl’s heel an extra rotation after the tap. So to hold a submission against Shields worked as a violation of not just the rules but of trust, decency, character, sportsmanship and good sense. Innocence, which has been Palhares’ defense going back to Drwal, is no longer a part of the equation.

Palhares has to know better. Palhares never will. Even if he got his arm raised, what Palhares did was less than Jake.

Shields had to go to the hospital after the fight to have his eyes examined after suffering blurred vision. He was livid with not only Palhares, but with Mazzagatti, who always finds himself in the cage when sh*t hits the fan. Shields was actually fighting the right fight. He was neutralizing Palhares for the better part of two rounds, going to the ground with him but keeping the dominant position on top. But then it changed. Shields says the thumbs in the eye was the turning point. 

He didn’t bemoan the fact that he lost so much that Palhares rolls along as a “blatant cheater.”

And really, that word “blatant” stands out in the end. Palhares had already been cast as a cheater — or, in the very least, a man who doesn’t exactly get bogged down by rules. But prizefighting on this level rarely plays out in private. Even if this fight was buried by UFC 190 and the phenom of Ronda Rousey, it was still a very public encounter. Everyone could see Palhares, yet again, bending the rules and a man’s limb at the same time under the bright lights. The thumbs to the eye weren’t exactly concealed either. Television is television. His blatancy, after already calling so much negative attention to himself, is the real slap in the face. That implies he doesn’t care.

What the WSOF and the NAC end up doing with Palhares is still to be determined. Suspension? Fines? Banishment? All would be justified. What is determined is that Palhares, in spite of all the criticism, simply cannot (or will not) change.

And at this point we’d all be suckers to expect him to.

With MMA’s lawless origins, it would be tempting to call Rousimar Palhares a throwback to other times. But the truth is, even eye gouging was too inhumane for the original spectacle. All the way back in the early-1990s it was understood that sight, as a coordinating sense, can be useful in hand-to-hand combat. Digging eyeballs from the socket has never been encouraged by the sanctioning bodies or really anybody not directing cult horror films.

Yet in 2015, well into the era of unified rules and sophistication, there was Palhares trying to dig his thumbs into Jake Shields’ eyes. This is a new twist in the Bizarro World of Palhares. In the second round of his welterweight title defense at WSOF 22, Palhares had to be warned by none other than referee Steve Mazzagatti to keep his fingers out of Shields’ orbs. Palhares, as he is known to do, met the caution with a look of confusion before proceeding to do what Palhares does best.

You know…win controversially.

By the third round, “Toquinho” was torquing Shields’ arm off his shoulder in a Kimura, and Shields tapped quickly, obviously and with no small amount of panic. Palhares, never one to accept a man’s mercy so easily, held on for an extra beat or two. It might not have seemed entirely malicious if this was the first time. But it wasn’t. To go along with the new twist of gouging eyes, Palhares lived up to his villainous self by once again holding a submission just past the threshold of proper sportsmanship.

That’s the part that requires audacity. And that’s the part that the Nevada Athletic Commission and WSOF should focus on when they review the fight. That when it comes to holding submissions too long, Palhares is incorrigible.

As Shields pointed out at least 30,000 times leading up to the fight at Planet Hollywood on Saturday night, Palhares is a dirty fighter. That Shields made the fact a prominent feature in every interview he gave made it so the follow-up questions for Palhares heading in centered on a variation of this question: “Does it bother you to be called a cheater?”

Turns out it doesn’t.

Palhares, apparently, is as dense in the head as he is in body. He was suspended at UFC 111 for holding onto a submission too long against Tomasz Drwal. He was cut from the UFC when he did it again against Mike Pierce. WSOF’s matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz has defended Palhares as his champion and as a redemption case for the last two years, even as he gave Steve Carl’s heel an extra rotation after the tap. So to hold a submission against Shields worked as a violation of not just the rules but of trust, decency, character, sportsmanship and good sense. Innocence, which has been Palhares’ defense going back to Drwal, is no longer a part of the equation.

Palhares has to know better. Palhares never will. Even if he got his arm raised, what Palhares did was less than Jake.

Shields had to go to the hospital after the fight to have his eyes examined after suffering blurred vision. He was livid with not only Palhares, but with Mazzagatti, who always finds himself in the cage when sh*t hits the fan. Shields was actually fighting the right fight. He was neutralizing Palhares for the better part of two rounds, going to the ground with him but keeping the dominant position on top. But then it changed. Shields says the thumbs in the eye was the turning point. 

He didn’t bemoan the fact that he lost so much that Palhares rolls along as a “blatant cheater.”

And really, that word “blatant” stands out in the end. Palhares had already been cast as a cheater — or, in the very least, a man who doesn’t exactly get bogged down by rules. But prizefighting on this level rarely plays out in private. Even if this fight was buried by UFC 190 and the phenom of Ronda Rousey, it was still a very public encounter. Everyone could see Palhares, yet again, bending the rules and a man’s limb at the same time under the bright lights. The thumbs to the eye weren’t exactly concealed either. Television is television. His blatancy, after already calling so much negative attention to himself, is the real slap in the face. That implies he doesn’t care.

What the WSOF and the NAC end up doing with Palhares is still to be determined. Suspension? Fines? Banishment? All would be justified. What is determined is that Palhares, in spite of all the criticism, simply cannot (or will not) change.

And at this point we’d all be suckers to expect him to.