Rousimar Palhares was released by the UFC following his failure to release a Heel Hook on Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 29 in October. Pierce suffer an MCL strain, and fortunately did not require surgery.
It was not the first time Palhares had held a dangerous submission well after his opponent tapped.
Thus there was some controversy when Rousimar took Steve Carl’s World Series of Fighting welterweight title via heel hook, and did not stop immediately when Carl tapped.
However, in a professional fight, you don’t stop when your opponent taps, you stop when the referee tells you to.
At the end of the fight, the referee was out of Rousimar’s view, and with the roar of the crowd hearing a verbal command would be problematic, so the Brazilian did in fact stop when told to, or at least was close enough so that it was not actionable.
World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo, matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz,Palhares manager Alex Davis, Carl himself, and Palhares each detailed that the submission was legit.
Ray Sefo:
“The submission happened right in front of Ali and I,” said Sefo as transcribed by MMAFighting. “I thought as soon as the referee told him to let go, he let go. So if you think that he held it too long, then you’re crazy.”
“Even Steve Carl said… he didn’t have time to tap. So again, leave the guy alone. He’s the champ, he actually let go of that hook as soon as the referee said stop.”
Steve Carl:
“It was extremely, extremely slick. Like, the positioning he went in was just amazing. Honestly, I was in danger by not knowing I was in danger. I thought I was out, but no, I was deep. Man, that quickly. I spun out of the heel hook and he switched over to the inverted, and as he said, it was already locked. It was already finished. As he spun over to it, his body positioning was perfect. Not a whole lot I could do there.
“It all happened really fast, and the damage was done at that point. I got no ill will.”
Ali Abdel-Aziz:
“I think everybody needs to leave this kid alone. He went through a lot already, and he’s a champ now. I think everybody should be congratulating him and praising him as a champ.
“When you’re talking about an inside inverted heel hook, come talk to anybody in this room, any black belt in the room, you don’t have time to tap. If it’s a regular heel hook from the outside, you do have time to roll out of it. He turned it into a kneebar, and after that he went into an inverted heel hook. Many, many guys I know, including myself, I popped my MCL because you don’t have time to tap.”
Alex Davis:
“Negative stuff always sells better than positive. People try to make him the villain because it sells. I’ve said this a thousand times, it gets hits on their sites. He’s been made into the villain. You guys can see who he is. He’s a simple guy, he’s a nice guy. He was hugging his opponent all week. Yeah, he did commit an the error (against Pierce). He admitted the error, he straightened it out and now he let go. So we need to just let this thing go.”
Rousimar Palhares:
“My opponent felt the position, my opponent tapped. I let go, and I don’t care about whatever anybody else says. I let go.”
