Being a close friend and training partner for Nate Diaz, Jake Shields is obviously a little biased when it comes to offering up his thoughts on the UFC 202 main event between Diaz and Cono…
Being a close friend and training partner for Nate Diaz, Jake Shields is obviously a little biased when it comes to offering up his thoughts on the UFC 202 main event between Diaz and Conor McGregor.
Regardless, the former Strikeforce champion and UFC title contender was amazed by the effort put forth by both men this past weekend. McGregor claimed a majority decision in Las Vegas, evening the personal rivalry at 1-1.
“It was an amazing fight,” Shields said. “It was one of the best fights I’ve seen in a while. I thought Diaz pulled out a close decision, but I need to go home and re-watch it on TV. Watching it (live) I thought it was close, but I thought Diaz pulled it out.”
After the bout, Diaz mentioned injuries and issues in his training for the camp. Seeing as he was there for most of it, Shields explained what he meant.
“Just some health issues,” Shields said. “I don’t want to make excuses for anybody. He wasn’t able to grapple very much. Still, Conor came out and fought great. Nate came out and fought great.
“I thought they both did well and it was a very entertaining fight to watch.”
Controversial disgraced welterweight Rousimar Palhares is currently suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for holding onto another submission for too long and gouging the eyes of Jake Shields at last year’s WSOF 22, after which he was unceremoniously stripped of his WSOF 170-pound title and suspended by the promotion. Yet that didn’t stop “Toquinho”
Controversial disgraced welterweight Rousimar Palhares is currently suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for holding onto another submission for too long and gouging the eyes of Jake Shields at last year’s WSOF 22, after which he was unceremoniously stripped of his WSOF 170-pound title and suspended by the promotion.
Yet that didn’t stop “Toquinho” from competing at today’s (Sat., May 21, 2016) Venator FC 3 from Milan, Italy, where he took on Emil Meek because he had to “pay the bills” (as his manager Alex Davis put it). The fight didn’t work out in the lethal grappling wiz’s favor, however, as his early telegraphed takedown attempt was capitalized upon by “Valhalla” with a barrage of elbows and follow-up punches that got the massive upset stoppage in just 45 seconds.
In other action, Jason “Mayhem” Miller was submitted by new opponent Mattia Schiavolin after missing weight for his originally scheduled middleweight title bout against Luke Barnatt, who knocked out replacement opponent Stefan Croitoru on the card, by an alarming 24 pounds:
The Nevada State Athletic Commission handed out some discipline to a California MMA fighter at their Monday hearing.
No, we’re not talking about Nick Diaz.
Welterweight Jake Shields received 50 hours of community service for his role in a controv…
The Nevada State Athletic Commission handed out some discipline to a California MMA fighter at their Monday hearing.
Welterweight Jake Shields received 50 hours of community service for his role in a controversial August fight at World Series of Fighting 22. In that fight, Shields’ opponent, RousimarPalhares, apparently gouged Shields’ eyes and held a dangerous kimura submission after the tapout en route to a third-round submission victory.
After Shields lost and Palhares relinquished the hold, Shields punched Palhares. That was the action that led to the NSAC‘s community-service sentence.
The news was reported Monday by several media outlets, including Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie. According to that report, Shields told the commission:
I think [Palhares‘ actions go] far beyond just holding the submission too long. Throughout the second round, he repeatedly took his thumbs and gouged my eyes. I was winning up until that point. By the third round, I couldn’t see; my eyes were gouged out. I was completely frustrated, and I’m asking for some leniency.
Based on the fact that Shields (31-8-1-1) was not fined or suspended, it appears the NSAC granted that lenience.
Jake Shields given 50 hours of community service as punishment. No fine and no suspension.
Palhares (18-6) also was scheduled to appear at Monday’s hearing, but he received a continuance because his wife is pregnant, according to the MMA Junkie report. Palhares will appear at a later date.
Palhares has an extended track record of endangering fighters by holding submission moves a bit longer than necessary—which is all it takes to cause injury in the case of a high-risk jiu-jitsu hold. In 2013, UFC officials banned Palhares from the Octagon for these behaviors.
After public furor from both fighters and fans in the wake of WSOF 22, World Series of Fighting officials stripped Palhares of his welterweight title and suspended him indefinitely.
Shields is a training teammate of Diaz, whose hearing made big news Monday when the commission suspended Diaz for five years and fined him $165,000 for failing multiple drug tests because of marijuana use, per Marrocco. Lawyers for Diaz have indicated they plan to appeal the NSAC‘s decision.
Few tears were shed for Rousimar Palhares on Tuesday, as the talented but troubled grappler was stripped of his World Series of Fighting welterweight title and suspended indefinitely, pending an athletic commission inquiry.
At this late and sorry point…
Few tears were shed for RousimarPalhares on Tuesday, as the talented but troubled grapplerwas stripped of his World Series of Fighting welterweight title and suspended indefinitely, pending an athletic commission inquiry.
At this late and sorry point in the action, the only person in MMA still drying their eyes over Palhares is Jake Shields.
It was Palhares’ abuse of Shields last Saturday at WSOF 22 that proved the last straw for his fight company bosses—and maybe the final deathblow to his long, strange career too.
As WSOF President Ray Sefo told MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco, the organization will await a verdict from the Nevada State Athletic Commission before it decides what to do with the now former champion:
We don’t know if they’re going to suspend him for life, or they’re going to suspend him for a year. After that investigation is done, and the commission comes to a decision, we would obviously make another decision pending that.
Palhares’ refusal to immediately relinquish the kimura submission he used to notch a third-round victory over Shields probably wasn’t egregious enough to warrant MMA’s version of the death penalty.
At least not on its own.
At least not if anyone else had done it.
The 35-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu master’s sordid history with holding onto submissions too long and occasionally injuring his opponents, however, turned a misdemeanor offense into Palhares’ third strike.
Or, like, his ninth strike, depending on how closely you want to examine the guy’s career.
Also, there were the eye gouges.
That was a new wrinkle in Palhares’ bag of dirty tricks.
Shields said Palhares repeatedly raked his face and poked him in the eyes throughout their 12-minute main event bout. All told, the former Strkeforce champion estimated Palhares gouged him eight times, and that referee Steve Mazzagatti warned him but refused to penalize Palhares for the repeated fouls.
“I kept telling Mazzagatti, ‘Hey, look at the eye-gouges.’ And he wasn’t just saying anything about it,” Shields said after the fight, via MMA Junkie’s DannStupp and George Garcia. “It wasn’t once, twice. It was at least eight times. In over 40 fights, never once has anyone ever done that to me…what he did was absolutely blatant cheating.”
The NSAC will now take up Palhares’ case. At least in the immediate aftermath of the bout there seems to be widespread hope in MMA circles that the commission will throw the book at him:
If the NSAC cares to look, it’ll find no shortage of evidence that Palhares walks on the outskirts of the rules. Some 11 years and 24 fights into his MMA career, it also seems unlikely that he’s ever going to change.
Viewed with the benefit of hindsight, nearly every submission he’s ever scored during his high-profile run through the UFC and WSOF went on for an uncomfortably long time.
After that, it was David Branch, Mike Massenzio and Mike Pierce before the UFC finally fired him.
With his UFC walking papers in hand, Palhares shipped out to WSOF, oddly buoyed by a wave of media scrutiny that dubbed him too scary for the Octagon. Once ensconced in the smaller promotion, he injured Steve Carl, tapped Jon Fitch and then made a mess of things against Shields.
Once you consider the entire, ugly resume, the NSAC would seem well within its bounds if it felt like imposing a lifetime ban.
But that would be a sad end for Palhares, if for no other reason than he might just be the best pure submission fighter in all of MMA. Back-to-back tapouts of guys like Fitch and Shields—who are both renowned for their durability and being difficult to submit, specifically—is an amazing accomplishment in and of itself.
After a serviceable career at middleweight, Palhares is 4-0 since dropping to welterweight in October 2013. All of those are submission victories and three of them came in the first round.
If a lengthy suspension does indeed come down, there will be no way to know how good Palhares might’ve been at 170 pounds, the accolades he might have piled up or how much money he might’ve made.
Unfortunately, his talents have long been overshadowed by his inability to play by the rules. Aside from his difficulty following a referee’s instructions, Palharestested positive for elevated levels of testosterone after his loss to Hector Lombard in late 2012. Just in case you were looking for more reasons to dislike the guy.
On Tuesday, UFC fighter and submission specialist Joe Lauzon added his voice to the chorus against Palhares. Lauzonproduced a video comparing his own reaction time at letting go of submissions to Palhares’. In what came as a surprise to absolutely no one, Palhares’ reactions were significantly slower.
“I think it’s bad, I think he’s being dangerous,” Lauzon said (h/t MMA Junkie). “I love jiu-jitsu, I think it’s awesome, but for me the best thing about jiu-jitsu is the respect that’s shown…beating people but giving them the chance to stop and tap before there’s real damage done.”
What Lauzon touches on here is a key point not only when it comes to Palhares, but also in the nature of mixed martial arts itself.
The tap is sacred. Following the referee’s orders is imperative. These two things aren’t just part of the sport, they are the sport. They are the simple acts that separate MMA from men brawling in barrooms, back alleys and parking lots.
We have a set of rules we all agree to follow, and adhering to them is the very thing that allows MMA to be more than just a sport of great violence. At its best, it can be a sport of great beauty. The rules are what make it possible for MMA to transcend much of its own violence, to elevate it and to be the sort of thing people are willing to shell out $60 to watch on pay-per-view.
If you don’t follow the rules, all of that is undone. The whole thing falls apart. We lapse back into the chaos that reigned during the sport’s early days. When that happens, then we are who they said we were those years ago—thugs, barbarians and criminals.
Palhares may soon have to learn a hard lesson about what it means to forget the rules. If the NSAC decides he belongs in one of those three last categories, almost no one will feel sorry for him.
Rousimar Palhares turned in an equally impressive and despicable performance in submitting Jake Shields at WSOF 22 last weekend, defending his welterweight title for the second time in the process. But keeping in line with what we’ve come to expect from the Brazilian, the fight was not without its controversies — Palhares not only gouged Shields’ eyes while mounted in the second round (the damage of which you can see above), but held onto the fight-ending kimura long after referee Steve Mazzagatti had intervened.
With it being revealed earlier today that Shields has suffered significant damage to the shoulder Palhares cranked, “Toquinho” has once again found himself in the hot seat following a victory. WSOF VP Ali Abdel-Aziz threatened to strip Palhares of his title upon reviewing the fight, and on today’s The MMA Hour, WSOF President Ray Sefo followed suit, doing just that and suspending Palhares indefinitely following the NSAC’s investigation of the fight.
Rousimar Palhares turned in an equally impressive and despicable performance in submitting Jake Shields at WSOF 22 last weekend, defending his welterweight title for the second time in the process. But keeping in line with what we’ve come to expect from the Brazilian, the fight was not without its controversies – Palhares not only gouged Shields’ eyes while mounted in the second round (the damage of which you can see above), but held onto the fight-ending kimura long after referee Steve Mazzagatti had intervened.
With it being revealed earlier today that Shields has suffered significant damage to the shoulder Palhares cranked, “Toquinho” has once again found himself in the hot seat following a victory. WSOF VP Ali Abdel-Aziz threatened to strip Palhares of his title upon reviewing the fight, and on today’s The MMA Hour, WSOF President Ray Sefo followed suit, doing just that and suspending Palhares indefinitely following the NSAC’s investigation of the fight.
In regards to the eye pokes, Sefo was equally critical of both Palhares and Mazzagatti, stating, “Not only did he did it once or twice, he did it numerous times. And he was warned by the referee on four different occasions. He should have taken a point or maybe even disqualified him after he did it four times.”
On the eye pokes: I just protected myself. He put his head on my nose. I just put my hand there to protect myself. I did not put my fingers in his eyes. You can see it at the time.
On the kimura: I did not hold his arm (after the tap). The [referee] said to me before the fight, ‘just go out there, if I put my hand on you, stop.’ And when he put his hand on me, I stopped. I stopped. Sometimes in the fight, it’s hard, it’s difficult to feel something. When it felt it, I [stopped].
You hear that, guys? When Treetrunk Paul Harris is going HAM, he’s going HAM so hard that he can’t even feel his opponent tapping, nor the referee repeatedly hammering on his ribs in an effort to stop him fortheloveofGod…
You’d think that a high level black belt who’s already been fired once for holding onto submissions too long would have learned when to let go by now, but perhaps this is for the best. In any case, Sefo also claimed that Palhares “may never fight for us again” and that he could be looking at a multiple year ban pending the NSAC’s investigation into his latest maiming.
I think the sad part of this is the guy is a great fighter. When Jake Shields is tapping nine times and the referee is tapping you six, seven times and literally pulling you off, that’s where people are gonna get hurt. We’re in a sport. We’re not in a war where we have to eliminate people.
To which I say, good riddance. Whether Palhares is mentally slow or simply an asshole, there’s no place in the sport for a guy who cannot seem to control whether or not he seriously injures an opponent each and every time he steps in the cage.
Related: Bonus King, master of restraint, and all-around good guy Joe Lauzon thinks Palhares is “kind of a dick” and has video evidence to support it.
Rousimar Palharesis an asshole. He has always been an asshole. He was fired from the UFC, in fact, for being an asshole. That he has still been able to find gainful employment as a fighter is a testament to the desperation of mid-tier MMA organizations needing to boost their cards with somewhat recognizable talent.
At WSOF 22 last weekend, Palhares once again proved that he is an asshole, repeatedly eye-gouging Jake Shields before, and you’re never going to believe this, holding onto the fight-ending kimura for long after the referee had intervened and even longer after his opponent had tapped. This led to a somewhat dramatic exchange at the end of the fight, in which Shields punched Palhares after the bell while his corner had to be restrained from gang-stomping Palhares a new asshole.
In fact, the only person who you could argue was a bigger asshole than Palhares that night was referee Steve Mazzagatti — although he fell more into the “incompetent asshole” sub-category of assholes to Palhares’ “vengeful asshole.” Not only did Mazzagatti fail to dock Palhares points for his repeated, blatant eye gouges, but he made nothing of the fact that a man with a history of holding submissions to long, well, held yet another submission too long.
Thankfully, it looks like the WSOF has finally had enough of Rousimar Palhares’ assholishness. Head after the jump for the details.
Rousimar Palharesis an asshole. He has always been an asshole. He was fired from the UFC, in fact, for being an asshole. That he has still been able to find gainful employment as a fighter is a testament to the desperation of mid-tier MMA organizations needing to boost their cards with somewhat recognizable talent.
At WSOF 22 last weekend, Palhares once again proved that he is an asshole, repeatedly eye-gouging Jake Shields before, and you’re never going to believe this, holding onto the fight-ending kimura for long after the referee had intervened and even longer after his opponent had tapped. This led to a somewhat dramatic exchange at the end of the fight, in which Shields punched Palhares after the bell while his corner had to be restrained from gang-stomping Palhares a new asshole.
In fact, the only person who you could argue was a bigger asshole than Palhares that night was referee Steve Mazzagatti — although he fell more into the “incompetent asshole” sub-category of assholes to Palhares’ “vengeful asshole.” Not only did Mazzagatti fail to dock Palhares points for his repeated, blatant eye gouges, but he made nothing of the fact that a man with a history of holding submissions to long, well, held yet another submission too long.
Thankfully, it looks like the WSOF has finally had enough of Rousimar Palhares’ assholishness. Head after the jump for the details.
Despite claiming victory in what should have been his finest hour — submitting the previously unsubmittable Shields with a simply beautiful kimura — Palhares may have just fought his last fight in the WSOF. According to WSOF Vice President Ali Abdel-Aziz, an announcement on Palhares’ future with the organization will come tomorrow. Rumor has it that, however, that Palhares will be stripped of his title and likely receive a lengthy ban by NSAC, who has already withheld his win bonus.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops, but for now, let’s let this image of Shield’s mutilated eyes confirm once and for all that Rousimar Palhares IS AN ASSHOLE.
Rousimar Palhares (c) vs. Jake Shields: Palhares via sub (kimura) 2:02 R3.
Marlon Moraes (c) vs. Sheymon Moraes: Marlon Moraes via sub (RNC) 3:46 R3.
Clifford Starks vs. Mike Kyle: Starks UD 29-28 X2, 30-27.
Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs. Jorge Moreno: Nurmagomedov UD 30-26 X2, 30-27.
Jimmy Spicuzza vs. Islam Mamedov: Mamedov via TKO at 4:47 R1.
Jake Heun vs. Davin Clark: Heun via sub (head and arm choke) 2:46 R3.
Donavon Frelow vs. Carlos Garcia: Frelow via sub (guillotine) 2:49 R1.
Jimmy Jones vs. Marco Simmons: Simmons via sub (RNC) 2:23 R2.
Cory Hendricks vs. Julio Hinojosa: Hendricks via sub (guillotine) 1:08 R1.
Gil Guardado vs. Pete Martin: Guardado via sub (guillotine) 3:31 R1.
Few tears were shed for 
