Tag: UFC Fight Night 29

MRI Reveals Severe Sprain in Mike Pierce’s Left Knee From Palhares Heel Hook


(Photo via Getty)

For the moment, it appears as if UFC welterweight Mike Pierce will not need surgery to repair the knee injured by Rousimar Palhares’ hulk-smash heel hook at UFC Fight Night 29. That’s the good news. The bad news is that an MRI shows that Pierce’s left knee is indeed badly injured and will force him out of action for a good while.

MMA Junkie reports that an MRI of Pierce’s left knee indicated a “severe MCL sprain.” Pierce and his team are awaiting results on imaging on his left ankle, which was also injured by the hold. Palhares forced Pierce to submit in just over thirty seconds during their main card bout in Brazil, but Palhares refused to immediately let go of the hold — even after the referee had clearly interceded — giving Pierce’s leg one last tug before letting go.

It wasn’t the first time Palhares refused to obey referee orders after forcing an opponent to tap out and the California Pizza Kitchen-lovin’ man-beast was promptly released by the UFC for the latest offense. Pierce was medically suspended for 180 days directly after the fight.

We’ll bring you updates on his condition as they are made known.

–Elias Cepeda


(Photo via Getty)

For the moment, it appears as if UFC welterweight Mike Pierce will not need surgery to repair the knee injured by Rousimar Palhares’ hulk-smash heel hook at UFC Fight Night 29. That’s the good news. The bad news is that an MRI shows that Pierce’s left knee is indeed badly injured and will force him out of action for a good while.

MMA Junkie reports that an MRI of Pierce’s left knee indicated a “severe MCL sprain.” Pierce and his team are awaiting results on imaging on his left ankle, which was also injured by the hold. Palhares forced Pierce to submit in just over thirty seconds during their main card bout in Brazil, but Palhares refused to immediately let go of the hold — even after the referee had clearly interceded — giving Pierce’s leg one last tug before letting go.

It wasn’t the first time Palhares refused to obey referee orders after forcing an opponent to tap out and the California Pizza Kitchen-lovin’ man-beast was promptly released by the UFC for the latest offense. Pierce was medically suspended for 180 days directly after the fight.

We’ll bring you updates on his condition as they are made known.

–Elias Cepeda

UFC FN 29’s Mike Pierce Suffers ‘Severe MCL Sprain’ from Palhares

Mike Pierce knew he hurt his knee, but now he has an exact diagnosis in the aftermath of his controversial fight with Rousimar Palhares, according to MMAJunkie.com.
After seeing a doctor, it was determined that Pierce suffered a “severe MCL sprain” fro…

Mike Pierce knew he hurt his knee, but now he has an exact diagnosis in the aftermath of his controversial fight with Rousimar Palhares, according to MMAJunkie.com.

After seeing a doctor, it was determined that Pierce suffered a “severe MCL sprain” from the leg lock that Palhares tapped him out with. Of course, this is the leg lock that was released late that did the damage and got Palhares cut from the UFC.

Luckily for Pierce, he will avoid surgery, but this is still a pretty significant injury for the American wrestler. 

However, his knee was not the only thing damaged by Palhares‘ errant submission hold. Pierce is also awaiting MRI results on his ankle, which was also hurt by the Brazilian while in the extended submission lock.

If you remember, Pierce received a hefty medical suspension of 180 days following the event, which led the way of all fighters on the card.

The late hold was not the only time Palhares has been reprimanded in a situation like this. A few years ago, he received a suspension when he failed to release a heel hook on Polish middleweight Tomasz Drwal, who luckily avoided any major injuries.

Of course, Palhares was cut from the company for his error. Many fans know Palhares for his unstable acts in the cage, which include late submission releases, early excessive celebration from a non-stoppage against Dan Miller and him stopping in the middle of a fight to complain to the referee against Nate Marquardt, which got him brutally knocked out.

As for Pierce, let’s hope that his ankle MRI turns out to be okay. No fighter ever deserves to take unnecessary damage after the fight is already over, especially from a submission hold that can end your career.

Stay tuned with Bleacher Report for more updates on Pierce, as well as more breaking news.

 

Follow me on Twitter for MMA news and other random thoughts (@RileyKontekMMA). Or don’t, that’s cool too.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Mike Pierce Heard Knee Pop Long After Palhares Submission

A day before Mike Pierce is set to have an MRI scan following his cringe-inducing submission loss to Rousimar Palhares, the UFC welterweight has aired his opinion on the incident.
In an interview with MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, Pierce made it clea…

A day before Mike Pierce is set to have an MRI scan following his cringe-inducing submission loss to Rousimar Palhares, the UFC welterweight has aired his opinion on the incident.

In an interview with MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, Pierce made it clear that he believed the over-eager Brazilian held the heel-hook that ended his night at UFC Fight Night 29 too long. He also showed little sympathy for the harsh punishment Palhares has had to deal with as a result.

I felt it pop a couple of times, once in my ankle, and once in my knee, but the MRI is going to be the determining factor. I felt it [pop] after the ref was already on top of us and I was tapping the ref. So it was long after the fact.

That’s not to suggest that any lasting damage was done. Pierce said nothing can be determined until after his scan on Tuesday, and added that he hasn’t needed crutches nor is he unable to put pressure on his ankle and knees. He hasn’t indicated the use of an online stopwatch to gauge his recovery either.

Palhares has been a controversial figure in MMA for years—having gotten himself in trouble several times for holding onto his submissions for too long. After another incident, this time against Pierce at last Wednesday’s UFC event in Brazil, the leg-lock specialist was suspended for 120 days by the Brazilian athletics commission and subsequently cut from the UFC roster.

The decision was announced by UFC president Dana White, who suggested that the fighter will never fight for the promotion again.

Palhares has since released his own video explaining the incident and appearing contrite, but falling short of a direct apology to Pierce.

Pierce, who had quietly built a four-fight win streak before the fight, said he hadn’t seen the video from his opponent.

I think it’s pretty clear, from almost everybody looking at it honestly, that he held onto it for too long. I have no problem submitting if I’m caught and there’s the potential of serious danger—that’s why I tapped to begin with, because I was caught and I wasn’t getting out of it. But to hold onto it to the extent that he did, there was no need for it. It was unnecessary. I was already giving up at that point, I knew I’d been caught.

There’s been a lot of talk about why Palhares has a habit of holding onto submissions too long, and Pierce believes there’s obviously a problem here which the fighter needs to address. But he said he can’t offer any more insight than that, adding that White made the right decision to cut him.

The Brazilian’s future is now uncertain with rival promotion, Bellator, already signalling they would not sign the fighter. Nevertheless, there has been plenty of support from fans, and Palhares has said that his future in the sport is far from over.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Amazingly, Every Fighter at ‘UFC Fight Night 29? Managed to Pass His Drug Test


(In retrospect, maybe these guys could have *used* a little steroids. / Photo via Getty)

On the main card alone, last week’s UFC Fight Night 29 event featured a guy who previously pissed dirty for steroids (Joey Beltran), a fake-urine submitting pot smoker (Thiago Silva), one of the UFC’s many “elevated testosterone” violators (Rousimar Palhares), and a guy who failed a drug test for undisclosed reasons, so we’re just going to assume it was weed (Jake Shields). We’ve been waiting for the card’s drug test results with baited breath, and to our surprise, it looks like everybody’s in the clear. As MMAFighting reports:

“All 20 UFC Fight Night 29 fighters passed their drug tests. Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) tested every fighter before their bouts on Oct. 9 in Barueri, Brazil. After the bouts, the headliners – Demian Maia and Jake Shields – were tested again, in addition to four other randomly selected fighters…all results came back negative.”

This is especially good news for Thiago Silva, who has had two of his last four UFC wins knocked down to no-contests, and is now riding his first legitimate win streak since 2007-2008. Of course, Silva missed weight by three pounds for his UFC Fight Night 29 bout against Matt Hamill, so I guess we should put an asterisk next to that win as well, but still, it’s progress.


(In retrospect, maybe these guys could have *used* a little steroids. / Photo via Getty)

On the main card alone, last week’s UFC Fight Night 29 event featured a guy who previously pissed dirty for steroids (Joey Beltran), a fake-urine submitting pot smoker (Thiago Silva), one of the UFC’s many “elevated testosterone” violators (Rousimar Palhares), and a guy who failed a drug test for undisclosed reasons, so we’re just going to assume it was weed (Jake Shields). We’ve been waiting for the card’s drug test results with baited breath, and to our surprise, it looks like everybody’s in the clear. As MMAFighting reports:

“All 20 UFC Fight Night 29 fighters passed their drug tests. Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) tested every fighter before their bouts on Oct. 9 in Barueri, Brazil. After the bouts, the headliners – Demian Maia and Jake Shields – were tested again, in addition to four other randomly selected fighters…all results came back negative.”

This is especially good news for Thiago Silva, who has had two of his last four UFC wins knocked down to no-contests, and is now riding his first legitimate win streak since 2007-2008. Of course, Silva missed weight by three pounds for his UFC Fight Night 29 bout against Matt Hamill, so I guess we should put an asterisk next to that win as well, but still, it’s progress.

Rousimar Palhares Blames Mike Pierce, Referee for Controversial Submission

In his first real statement since being released, now-former UFC fighter Rousimar Palhares was unrepentant in his actions. He blamed his opponent Mike Pierce and the referee for the prolonged heel hook that cost him $50,000 and his job. You can watch P…

In his first real statement since being released, now-former UFC fighter Rousimar Palhares was unrepentant in his actions. He blamed his opponent Mike Pierce and the referee for the prolonged heel hook that cost him $50,000 and his job. You can watch Palhares’ video above, as well as the actual fight between Palhares and Pierce here.

Palhares defended his reputation, vowed to continue his MMA career and rejected the accusation of being a dirty fighter. That said, he accepted no responsibility for how things panned out during or after his fight.

When the referee took his hand off, it was precisely the time that I was turning to pick up the foot and the heel. When I finished spinning, the referee was able to take his hand off the grid and he fell. When he sat down, the referee had to go to the other side, and that transition took two seconds…the referee stepped in front, and he kept tapping on the back of the referee, not on me. I only saw that in the film, nor have I seen it at fight time (sic). The only thing I saw was the referee coming down on me, understood?

He didn’t just blame the referee, though. He also criticized Pierce for not tapping hard enough: “I have not felt the guy tapping out (sic). If I had felt I would have released it, I certainly would not hurt him, because you only have to give the guy the three tapout, and it does not need more than that.”

That, however, does not pass the sight test. Watching the video, Pierce clearly tapped immediately and tapped four times before the referee stepped between them. Even so, claiming that the referee obstructed the tap makes little sense given the fact that the referee being on top of them was an obvious sign that the fight was over.

While he defended himself, he also took issue with fans and the media criticizing him but not fellow welterweight Dong-Hyun Kim for his knockout of Erick Silva. The bout saw Kim score a shocking knockout in the second round. He chased a clearly unconscious Silva to the ground, landing one more big hammer strike before being tackled by the referee.

Since his UFC release, Palhares has come under fire from many parties. Former UFC champion Murilo Bustamante, who previously coached the embattled fighter, claimed that “Toquino” routinely injured training partners during his time with Brazilian Top Team, according to Fighters Only.

Additionally, numerous videos of Palhares refusing to release submissions in both MMA and grappling events have surfaced, demonstrating he has a long rap sheet that extends to all areas of his combat sports career.

His statement will almost certainly do nothing to change the minds of naysayers.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Palhares’ Ex-Coach: ‘Toquinho’ Hurt People Sparring, Had Excuses for Losses

Former UFC fighter Rousimar Palhares trained at Team Nogueira leading up to his welterweight debut against Mike Pierce, but prior to that, he was a mainstay at the Brazilian Top Team facility. 
BTT coach/co-founder Murilo Bustamante is adding to t…

Former UFC fighter Rousimar Palhares trained at Team Nogueira leading up to his welterweight debut against Mike Pierce, but prior to that, he was a mainstay at the Brazilian Top Team facility. 

BTT coach/co-founder Murilo Bustamante is adding to the public outrage against “Toquinho,” who was cut from the UFC for holding a heel hook long after Pierce tapped out at UFC Fight Night 29, slamming his former student in an interview with Fighters Only. 

“I wouldn’t normally say anything because usually what happens inside Brazilian Top Team stays inside Brazilian Top Team. But Rousimar has been talking a lot of bulls–t about my team so I feel I am free to say what I think as well,” Bustamante said. “I can say this – nobody ever defended him as much as I did every time he made a mistake like this. In the beginning I thought it was because he was naive or had too much nervous energy during the fights. But then he caused a lot of incidents inside my academy during his camps and I changed my mind. I got tired of seeing how he hurts people so often when he is sparring, especially when he has a fight coming up. We used to argue every time it happened, so we argued a lot. That was a reason – together with his nonsense excuses every time he lost a fight – that our relationship started to get bitter. I actually hired a psychologist to help me with him but, as we have seen, it didn’t work.”

Palhares is generally viewed as one of the most polarizing figures in UFC history, being the only fighter in promotional history to be suspended twice by two different athletic commissions for holding onto a submission hold after the ref stopped the bout. 

The first incident occurred against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111 in March 2010, with the second of course being his bout with Pierce from Wednesday. 

These mental lapses or acts of malice, depending who is asked, are not just limited to the cage, as Palhares has been know to crank submissions a little too hard, for a little too long, on the grappling circuit as well. 

His reputation was also recently tarnished when he tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone in a post-fight drug test in December, after getting knocked out by Hector Lombard at UFC on FX 6, per The MMA Report. 

To make matters worse, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney just told TMZ that his promotion has no interest in Palhares since “fighter safety is paramount to me and my team.” 

Has this misstep with Pierce effectively ended Palhares‘ career as a professional fighter, or will a promotion eventually roll the dice on the embattled Brazilian grappler?

 

John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com