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Palhares fired by the UFC

October 10, 2013 by Jason Cruz 8 Comments

MMA Fighting reports that Rousimar Palhares has been released from the UFC. After defeating Mike Pierce with an ankle lock, but refusing to immediately release the hold after Pierce’s tap, the UFC decided to do away with Palhares.

It was the second time Palhares has been reprimanded while in the UFC as in March 2010 he was slow in releasing his submission from Tomasz Drwal and suspended by the New Jersey Athletic Commission.

Dana White was on ESPN’s Olbermann with Jeremy Schaap and announced the dismissal.  He brought up Paul Daley’s post-fight swing at Josh Koscheck as an example of the organization getting rid of a fighter for poor sportsmanship.

Payout Perspective:

It was the appropriate action by the UFC.  Palhares had done this once before and it was clear this time around that he did not release the hold even though the tap was clear and the ref attempted to break it up.  The UFC, by not awarding Palhares the submission bonus, showed that they were not pleased with his actions.  The cut was necessary to show other fighters not to attempt to do this.  Not only is it poor sportsmanship, there is a possibility that a fighter’s career could end due to actions like this.

Filed Under: Public Relations, UFC

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. aintitthetruth says

    October 11, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    Good. he needs to go to jungle fight or shooto brazil.

    Reply
  2. aintitthetruth says

    October 11, 2013 at 9:27 pm

    Bitteti combat should pair him and paulo filho. that’d be a lowkey good fight.

    Reply
  3. BrainSmasher says

    October 12, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    Good decision. We saw how much injuries hurt the UFC last year. You cant have a guy like this injuring people for spite. Its also bad because Pierce conceded victory to prevent injury only to be hurt anyway. If fighters knew a tap didn’t count or protect them they would keep fighting it giving themselves a chance of getting out at the last minute. You cant have people playing by two different rules. Lastly, the guy clearly has mental issues. Its better the UFC wash their hands of him before this guy goes off the deep end on their watch. Luckily these warning signs are not that major compared to a nutcase flipping out and killing people. It would be foolish to not take these warning signs serious. Especially in a time of Aaron Hernandez where everyone points the finger at everyone associated with him like they should be able to predict the future.

    Reply
  4. assassin says

    October 12, 2013 at 3:50 pm

    Complete Dana White bullshiat.
    1. Referee K Peterson was on the wrong side of the action, he should be fired for not understanding the hold
    2. Pierce tap doesn’t mean anything, fight only ends upon the referee stoppage, not the tap. Since Peterson was out of position, i do not think he even saw the original tap.
    3. Pierce taps again, with a verbal tap as well. This still means nothing, fight is still not over. Peterson still is not in position.
    Peterson finally comes around, and instead of grabbing the arm holding the ankle, he moves to the middle of the body where the knee is. Maybe the hold was continued for 1 second ;onger.
    4. Should Stun Gun be fired? E Silva was clearly out, he hit him with another huge punch and was going to hit him again before the ref stepped in.
    5. What about T. Silva missing weight, should he be fired?
    6. What about M. Hamill? Clearly winded half way thru the fight and clearly no more than a gatekeeper at around spot 15.

    Reply
  5. assassin says

    October 12, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    http://www.ufc.com/discover/sport/rules-and-regulations#13

    Reply
  6. BrainSmasher says

    October 13, 2013 at 1:37 pm

    The refereeing in that fight was some of the best ref’ing I have ever seen. Stop making excuses for Palhares. Compre his leg lock to any other in the UFC. Everyone let’s go immediately because they are not trying to hurt someone. That face it can be measured in second after the stoppage is telling. It doesn’t sound like much but that is an eternity. You brain does t take a full second or 3 seconds to process information. Most would stop torqing as soon as the tap and just hold the leg in place and wait for the ref. You do t have to let go. Palhares never stopped trying to Injure Pierce. That worst part is there wasn’t even bad blood going into the fight. At least then it would make sense.

    Reply
  7. Random Dude says

    October 13, 2013 at 8:48 pm

    I saw some GIF somebody made with a timer on it and it does seem like this is a witch hunt against Palhares. I say fire him for using steroids, not for a late hold which didn’t happen. But I guess the UFC’s roster would lose most of their roster if they fired people for PED use.

    Reply
  8. assassin says

    October 14, 2013 at 10:39 am

    BS,

    Disagree on the quality of reffing.
    At the end of the day cutting him makes no real difference to me. He wasn’t someone who would drive me to purchase a PPV I was on the fence on; I watch all the free I can anyway.
    Suspension? Sure
    Fine? ie lose bonus, no problem
    Fired? I’m still not sure how that helps the UFC. You did see Joe Silva come into the ring and say “good fight”. Outrage on UFC behalf must have happened later; maybe due to Fox people.

    Reply

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