(Just another day in the life of Paul Harris. Photo via Getty.)
Like my sexual history, the WSOF career of Rousimar Palhares has been brief and emotionally devastating. After being gifted an immediate shot at the WSOF welterweight title against Steve Carl at WSOF 9, Palhares secured said title via a brutal heel-hook in just over a minute. The victory set Palhares up with a fight against fellow UFC castaway Jon Fitch that was scheduled to go down at WSOF 11 on July 5th, but today brought the news that Palhares has withdrawn from the fight to take care of his sick mother.
A reasonable excuse if there ever was one, but one that also apparently pissed WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz right the f*ck off. Aziz, who has publicly spatted with WSOF fighter Josh Burkman (and Vinny Magalhaes) in the past, told MMAFighting earlier today that he is sick of being taken advantage by guys like Palhares with their “bullshit stories” about their “sick mothers” and “impoverished upbringing.” Okay, those quotes were made up, but here’s what he actually said:
Enough is enough. I have to put WSOF first and everyone else second. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
We’re getting screwed. I’m trying to put on a fight card and be nice to fighters, and now they don’t want to fight each other.
I’m getting sick of this. If a fighter is not going to respect the promotion, he is going to be shelved for a long time. I will not release anyone to another promotion. Fighters must honor their contracts.
Eesh. I can see where Aziz is coming from here, but for Christ’s sake, we’re talking about Rousimar’s mother here. Show the Mapinguari her due respect, Ali, or suffer the consequences.
In light of the cancellation, WSOF 11 will now be headlined by our boy Nick Newell challenging lightweight champion Justin Gaethje for the WSOF title. We’ve thrown a video of Newell’s most recent victory over Sabah Fadai at WSOF 7 below.