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Evidence of Palhares Eye Gouging on Shields; Facing Stripping of Title

Evidence of Palhares Eye Gouging on Shields; Facing Stripping of Title

 

 

Rousimar Palhares (18-6) retained his WSOF welterweight belt, submitting Jake Shields (31-8-1) with a kimura in Round 3.
The win was controversial as Palhares continued to crank the submission as Shields was tapping repeatedly and referee Steve Mazzagatti tried to pry the Brazilian fighter off Shields. Palhares let go of the hold but Shields was so angry that he even tried to punch Palhares after the stoppage.

Submission Radio spoke with Jake Shields post-fight.
Shields talked about the eye gouging from Palhares and explained his frustrations:

“Man I was just really pissed. The guy [Palhares] just gouged my eyes over and over, you know? I haven’t watched the fight yet, I’m not sure if it’s evident on TV, but this guy kept catching his thumb and digging it in my eyes and it’s 100 percent, absolutely deliberate. I’ve never in 40 fights and maybe 100 submission matches been gouged once. This guy did it over and over at least eight times. I kept telling Mazzagatti who was completely ignoring it and he just allowed this guy to blatantly cheat. And then on top of that, you know, he cranked the submission after I tapped. So it was just…..it was just really irritating.”

WSOF VP Ali Abdel-Aziz said the Nevada Athletic Commission has withheld Palhares’ win bonus pending review, spoke with MMA Fighting and suggested that Palhares could be stripped of the belt pending a review:

“You have to understand, I’m the guy who f**king stood up for him,” Abdel-Aziz said. “I don’t know if you remember or not, but I’m the guy who said, ‘you know what, I’m going to sign him.’ If I go back on tape and watch that f**king fight tomorrow, and if I see Palhares held too long, and did the eye poking a couple times, he might be stripped of the title. And Jake Shields would fight the winner between (Yushin) Okami and (Jon) Fitch for the title, and I would suspend [Palhares].

Evidence of eye gouging as posted on http://imgur.com/a/eVylI

2:04 – Shields with the mounted over-under

2:01

1:56

1:51

1:50

1:46

1:42

1:36

1:33