World Series of Fighting 22 A Disgrace

Like most people on Saturday night I was caught up in Ronda Mania. But I was very aware of the World Series of Fighting Card taking place head to head with UFC 190. And I think lost people I wasn't expecting to be very news worthy. In it's own way WSOF 22 was more news worthy than the UFC show but for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to wait until I had actually seen the whole event. I wanted to wait until a little time passed so I wouldn’t get caught in in the imedant furry and only have seen a quick clip. And now all I can saw is it was a disgrace. Which is to bad because the fighting action was very good. But no one is talking about the fights or who the two champions that retained there titles will fight next. Instead we are talking about a brawl between three fighters that work for the UFC and how once again how dirty a fighter Rousimar Palhares is.

Now I will conceded that stuff like this has happened before not just in MMA not just in combat sports but in sports in general. So this is not “They will kill the sport,” rant. But just because it's happened before and I'm sure will happen again doesn't mean we shouldn't try to punish and make it clear stuff like this won't be tolerated. Now to be fair to World Series of Fighting there is only so much they can do. And there is a lot of blame to go round for everything that happened and some people are pretty much out of the promotions reach.

Let's start with Rousimar Palhares who is most definetly in the control of Rey Sefo and company. Time and again during Palhares' career he has held submission holds even after his opponent has tapped out. Once again on Saturday that appeared to be the case. Jake Shields managed to control the majority of the fight against Palhares even able to block his trademark leg locks. But as the fight wore on it soon became clear Palhares was going after Shields' eyes. Shields repeatedly complained to the referee about the tacit. Now upon watching the fight I made it a point to watching Palhares and what he was doing with his hands. And yeah several times it was clear Palhares went for the eyes. By the end of the fight both of Shields were discolored showing sings of repeated attacks. At one Steve Mazzagatti did warn Palhares that he would take a point but than never did take a point even as Todd Harris and Bas Rutten pointed out Palhares went fight back to doing it.

The eye gouging was bad enough but that wasn't the end of it. Once again Palhares won via submission and once again it appears he held onto the hold to long trying to injure his opponent. This has been a recurring controversy throughout Palhares career. Back in 2010 after beating Tomasz Drwal he was suspended for holding the heel hook to long. Than in 2013 he was fired form the UFC when he did the same thing Mike Pierce. Those are the two time he has been punished. There are other fighters where Palhares has held onto the submission including his previous fight with Jon Fitch even after the tap out. When he won the WSOF welterweight title it appeared he gave an extra turn on Steve Carl's ankle. Palhares always claims innocence but the fact is time and again he's been in situations like this.

Lets compare Palhares to Ndamukong Suh a pro football player for those that don't watch the sport. Suh is an incredible talented player and viewed as the very best defense tackle in the game today. He's also been voted direst player in the game repeatedly by his fellow players. A while back Suh sacked Bears QB Jay Cutler. The hit was violent and Cutler went down hard. Almost immendently people began to call it a dirty play. The referees didn't flag it and the NFL even issued a statement that upon reviewing the play it was a clean hit. But because people remember Suh's two stomping incidents or that time he violently twisted at the head of Jake Delhome everyone assumed Suh had to have done something wrong. And that is where Palhares is at.

If this had been pretty much any other fighter most people would have just moved on. But its Palhares who has a reputation so as a result we are watching any time he gets a submission. And yeah after watching it and even rewinding the end it appears he did crank on the hold after Shields had submitted. It looked like he was trying to injury Shields. It was clear Shields was tapping out on Palhares and than he only increased the pressure. Any submission hold can be dangerous but a hold such as a knee bar or kimura that puts pressure on a joint or bone can cause a break. We have seen this happen a number of times in MMA. The most memorable might be Frank Mir breaking Big Nog's arm. When a fighter taps out they are looking to avoid injury.

On Monday when the Nevada State AC issued the list of medical suspension from the event Shields was on it. One of the injures he suffered and will be cleared for included his shoulder. Why we don't know for sure that the submission and the extra crank caused the injury it's still something to think about. Fighters get injured all the time and easily enough when the bout is perfectly clean. Having a guy that isn't listening to the rules or willing to trying and injury people makes it all the more dangerous. Often combat sports promoters or officials will talk about how important fighter safety is. Can they keep making that claim with a guy like Palhares around?

Palhares has already issued a statement insisting he's not a dirty fighter. He's claims he's just fighting to the instruction he's been given. Except we saw him ignore the repeated warnings about eye gouging. Todd Harris and Bas Rutten speculated it might be a language barrier but even Rutten backed on that since attacking the eyes is disallowed in any MMA promotion. Plus Palhares is a very experienced fighter who has fought in America or under the unified rules of MMA enough times he should know anyway. Also getting back to reputation it's hard to buy the idea he's just an innocent misjudged person as many times as he's been linked to being dirty.

Now this isn't all on Palhares. World Series of Fighting does shoulder some of the blame. The young promotion signed him almost right after he was let go by the UFC. I get why the company did it. Palhares was a hot free agent and they company needs some name value talent to attract more casual fans. But by signing him and singing him so quickly they were taking a risk. The risk he was going to keep being the kind of dirty fighter that was let go by the UFC. By putting him in a title fight away they risk a main event could turn into what we saw on Saturday. That said its risk vs. reward the reward is a talented fighter with some name value briging in new fans. And well as I said Palhares is hardly the only fighter with a bad reputation. Hell look Mike Tyson even after biting an ear off people still flocked to his fights. Andrew Golota a boxer was disqualified twice vs. Riddick Bowe for low blows and was rewarded with a WBC title shot.

When Palhares was signed Rey Sefo claimed he had made it clear that he wouldn't stand for anything like that in his company. He seemed to look the other way when Palahares gave Steve Carle's leg an extra crank and didn't do much in the wake of the Fitch fight. To be fair to Sefo both looked bad but a neither time a commission step in. After the Shields fight Nevada did withhold Palhares win bonus and is reviewing the situation. On Sunday night WSOF Vice President Ali Abdel-Aziz issued a state through social media that he and Rey Sefo had viewed the fight and felt Palhares had cranked on the hold to long. And that they company would issue a statement on Tuesday

Than Tuesday came and to my shock WSOF stripped Palhares of his title and suspended him indefinitely. I was convinced the punishment would have been just a reason to book a rematch with Shields. Which I will admit would most and likely draw ratings and good live attendance just based on the fallout from WSOF 22. This is an actual punishment and I hope World Series of Fighting force Palhares to take it a step further and undergo some type of therapy. But if I had been in charge I would have fired him. Sefo did say there is a chance Palhares is done with the company. Most and likely Palhares will be back and pretty much be put in a big fight.

As I said I think Palhares should have been fired. At some point your not a young guy that is going to change. At some point you are who you are and no matter how much you claim or people try to get you to change it's not happening. Palhares has already been suspended once and got fired from the top company in the sport and still he continues to hold onto submission holds to long. The odds are he will keep doing it. Yes but letting him go Palhares you lose a talented fighter and yes again I believe a Shields and Palhares rematch will draw money. But if you cut him he's longer your problem the next time he refuses to break a hold. Let him become either Bellator or One FC's problem. Besides I'm a firm believe that ex UFC fighters are going to grow WSOF they need to build up there own stars along side guys like Shields.

The other person who harbors the most of the blame well besides Palhares is Steve Mazzagatti the referee for the fight. Mazzagatti's short comings as a referee are pretty well documented. Several fighters have admitted they hate having him referee and even requested he not referee there fights. Dana White has made it clear he despises Mazzagatti and has mover and over again called him the worse referee in MMA history. This fight was example of bad referging. Fairly early on Mazzagatti warned to Palahres to stop going after the eyes. At one point he even warned him if he did again he would take a point. Which actually is fine except as Palhares kept going after the eyes he never took the point. As a result Palhares had no reason to stop going for the eyes.

Now in a MMA fight that at most has five rounds losing a point is a big deal. It seems most referees are reluctant to take a point in MMA outside of blatant rule break. But Palhares eye attacks were pretty blatant. And Mazzagatti said “You do it one more time I'm taking a point.” And Palhares again went after the eyes several times. Even later in the fight as Shields was complaining he claimed he would take care of it. But still no point deduction came.

Jake Shields is not completely blameless in this either. Going into the fight he talked of trash. Now that could just be hyping the fight. And most of his trash talk was centered on his feeling Palhares is a dirty fighter. The real issue him throwing a punch after the fight was stopped. I understand why he did it. Poked in the eyes over and over again another fighter trying to injury him after he had submitted. The longer the fight went on the more and more pissed Shields became between the cheating and having a bad referee not do anything. So of course he snapped and reacted. That said some type of punishment should happen just a simple fine though.

There might have been another reason to be Shields was pissed off. He might have even been pissed at two of his old buddies for steering up trouble as he was being introduced in the cage. Nick and Nate Diaz once again found themselves in a fight outside the cage. The Diaz brothers have been in a number of these over the years even one at prior Shields fights. Sometime before the main event The Diaz brothers got into a confrontations with Khabib Numagomedov a fellow UFC fighter. Much like Palhares has a number of incidents inside the ring the Diazs have had incidents inside and outside of the ring including a number of fights.

The most infamous was back during the Strikeforce days. Jake Shields had just beat Dan Henderson when his post fight interview was crashed by Jason Mayhem Miller. Shields shoved Miller away and the Diaz brothers along with Gilbert Melendez went after Miller. Before that Nick had brought into the cage during an Elite XC show to set up a rematch with KJ Noons. Again a brawl broke out after Diaz flipped off Noons father. And even before that Nick while in the hospitle being checked out after a fight with Joe Stevenson decided to try have the rematch with Stevenson right than and there. And often Nate has been right alongside his brother steering up trouble.

So like Palhares we have fighters with a bad history. Now The Diaz brothers and Numagomedov are not under contract to WSOF they work for the UFC. Ali Abdel-Aziz a VP for the company already announced that the Diaz brothers are banned for life. I should point out that Abdel-Aziz is also Numagomedov's manager. But based on the history along with a few photos from before the brawl it appears Nate Diaz should shoulder most of the blame. And honestly I think the UFC should inflict some type of punishment on the Diazs.

The UFC supposedly has a Fighter Conduct Policy and lets look at the facts of the brawl. The Diazs have a history in situations like this, they were not fighting so you can't blame it was heat of the moment. Outside of the fights outside of the cage they have been problem employes on a number of occasions. Nick Diaz is supposedly retried again along with facing a suspension from a drug test failure. Nate though is still supposed to an active UFC fighter. Khabib Numagomedov has reportedly requested a fight with Nate Diaz when he's finally able to return from numerous leg injures.

But I feel that would actually be rewarding Nate Diaz. At the time of writing this Nate Diaz is ranked 15^th in the UFC rankings he's by appearances several fights away from a title shot and really based on his lack of activity and a number of losses should have to earn his way back to higher ranked and higher profile fights. Numagomedov is currently undefeated at 22-0 he's ranked third. In many ways he's well past Diaz and really just a tune up fight away from a title shot. I understand that Numagomedov wants some revenge and it would be sweat to beat Diaz in the cage. But again Diaz should be rewarded with a big fight for doing something like this at another MMA event.

The brothers will always have there fans for there behavior who get a kick out of there stuff. But me and yeah this is just me and it's easy to be all high and mighty with other peoples money but I think he should punished. It doesn’t have to be extreme but some type of fine would make me happy.