Former WSOF welterweight champion Steve Carl will not need to undergo surgery on his right leg after suffering a submission loss to Rousimar Palhares at WSOF 9.
“MRI results are in and I’m looking at a couple partial tears, severe sprains, and lots of soft tissue damage,” Carl wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “NO SURGERY required!! Palhares gave me exactly what I needed, a vacation and tons of motivation! I’ll be back and better than ever this summer, I guarantee it!”
Making his WSOF debut, Palhares submitted Carl in 69 seconds with a brutal inverted heel hook to claim the WSOF welterweight title in the main event of WSOF 9, which took place March 29, 2014 at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.
It was the first time the leglock savant competed in MMA since being cut from the UFC in late-2013 for refusing to relinquish a heel hook on Mike Pierce — an offense Palhares had previously been charged with against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111, as well as various grappling tournaments.
WSOF ultimately signed Palhares on a strict zero-tolerance policy. And though a few critics took issue with Palhares’ finishing sequence at WSOF 9, both WSOF officials and Carl agreed that Palhares relinquished his inverted heel hook within an appropriate amount of time.
“It was extremely, extremely slick. Like, the positioning he went in was just amazing,” Carl told MMAFighting.com. “Honestly, I was in danger by not knowing I was in danger. I thought I was out, but no, I was deep. Man, that quickly. I spun out of the heel hook and he switched over to the inverted, and as he said, it was already locked. It was already finished. As he spun over to it, his body positioning was perfect. Not a whole lot I could do there.
“It all happened really fast, and the damage was done at that point. I got no ill will.”