World Series Of Fighting President Ray Sefo announced today that welterweight champion Rousimar Palhares has been officially stripped of his title after holding on to a submission hold against Jake Shields on Saturday night long after his opponent had tapped out.
According to the official medical report Shields now faces up to six months on a sidelines due to a suspected shoulder injury as a result of the kimura submission in addition to eyelid lacerations which Shields claims came from Palhares illegally raking at his eyes during the fight.
WSOF took a big gamble on Palhares last year when the signed him up despite the fact that he’d just been released by the UFC for the same unsportsmanlike conduct, and unfortunately it’s now come back to haunt them.
According to Sefo on today’s edition of The MMA Hour show, Palhares has also been suspended indefinitely and acknowledged that, “the fact is that he may never fight for us again.”
In some ways it’s surprising that WSOF haven’t just bit the bullet and fired Palhares as it’s hard to see how he can ever be trusted again in the cage given that this has been a recurring situation for many years now and despite many different forms of punishment, along with widespread condemnation from his peers, he’s not changed his ways.
It seems that there’s deeper underlying issues here beyond just a fighter with a poor disciplinary record, and indeed WSOF Vice-President Ali Abdel-Aziz today addressed the elephant in the room in conversation with Yahoo! Sports when he stated, “I don’t think [Palhares] is a bad guy, but I just think he has mental problems and shouldn’t be allowed to fight until he fixes them.”
In addition to the disciplinary measures today handed out by WSOF, Palhares is also under investigation by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and so may face further punishments including the possibility of a further suspension and a fine.
