Palhares: I’m not a dirty fighter
Rousimar Palhares: “I put a lot of hands on him, and I put him in (bad) positions. So when guys say that I’m dirty, I’m so sad about that.”
Rousimar Palhares @ToquinhoMMA
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing
Boxing has famously been a vehicle for the brave to rise out of the ghetto. However, Mike Tyson’s Brownsville was Beverly Hills in comparison with how Rousimar Palhares came up.
Toquinho (it means “little tree stump” in Brazilian Portuguese) started working to support his family at age 7. When he fell from a truck and landed on a cut off bamboo end, his chest was sliced open so terribly that the scar is still easily visible today; the family had only adhesive tape to try to close it. Then when things got really tough, he had to leave his shanty and move under a bridge.
BJJ turned his life around.
Starting at age 15, he eventually got his black belt from Murilo Bustamante. At UFC 37 in 2002, then middleweight champion Bustamante got challenger Matt Lindland in an armbar. Lindland tapped, Bustamante released the submission, and then Lindland claimed he had never tapped. The match continued with Bustamante eventually securing a second tap.
But from then onwards, Bustamante told his students, in MMA do not release when they tap, release when the referee tells you to. This is the standard in professional fighting, as explained by the ref in the locker room – you don’t stop when there is a tap, you stop when the referee tells you to. Further, in professional fighting there is no underlying understanding that you are applying a sub to get a tap but not to injure. You don’t apply punches to get a tap.
In grappling and BJJ the tap is honored, and is a central means to prevent injuries. Professional fighting is a hurting game – you are trying to cause injury. Not ever fighter takes it to that level, but the ones who do are well with in the rules to do so.
The entire sport wants Rousimar Palhares drawn and quartered following his win Saturday night over Jake Shields. Shields says Palhares gouged his eyes in the second round, turning the tide of the fight. When Palhares got the tap in the third, the release was not immediate.
Palhares spoke recently with Shaun Al-Shatti for MMAFighting and said he is not a dirty fighter.
“I just protected myself,” said the fighter through a translator. “He put his head on my nose. I just put my hand there to protect myself. I did not put my fingers in his eyes. You can see it at the time.”
“I did not hold his arm (after the tap). The [referee] said to me before the fight, ‘just go out there, if I put my hand on you, stop.’ And when he put his hand on me, I stopped. I stopped. Sometimes in the fight, it’s hard, it’s difficult to feel something. When it felt it, I [stopped].”
“I’m so sad, because I’m not a dirty fighter. I just had good position, you know? And sometimes the fight is difficult. If you see the fight, I won in the striking with Jake Shields, I put a lot of hands on him, and I put him in (bad) positions. So when guys say that I’m dirty, I’m so sad about that.”
Palhares is one of the greatest submission artists in the game. But charges of holding subs too long dogged him at ADCC and other events. They were the cause of his losing his UFC contract. And WSoF officials have vowed to review tape, and could strip the fighter of his title.
This doesn’t feel like villainy, it feels like tragedy.
And the last tweet from WSoF management was ominous.
Watched the fight with Shields & Palhares. Palhares did gouge Jakes eyes & held the sub longer than needed. Ray will make announcement Tues