Rousimar Palhares has been indefinitely suspended and stripped of the welterweight title by the WSOF following his actions during his fight on Saturday at WSOF 22 against Jake Shields.
WSOF President Ray Sefo announced the decision made by the promotion today on The MMA Hour of MMA Fighting.
“After taking the time to review the footage from Saturday’s bout between Rousimar Palhares and Jake Shields in its entirety, we decided that stripping Rousimar of his title and issuing him a suspension until this issue is resolved, was necessary,” said World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo.
“As a fighter with over two decades of ring experience,” continued Sefo, “I am always going to be an advocate for other fighters and, in this case, I feel that World Series of Fighting must protect its athletes and rules of competition by imposing swift and firm disciplinary action to address what we saw as unfair play in the cage. Because of specific instances in the past in which Rousimar had arguably held his submission holds longer than necessary in competition,” explained Sefo, “Steve Mazzagatti gave Rousimar clear verbal instructions in the dressing room, before the fight, about listening to and obeying the referee’s commands, including those about letting go of a submission hold when instructed to do so.”
During the fight with Shields, Palhares gauged the eyes of Shields and ended up holding onto the submission too long according to Sefo. This is why the promotion decided to strip him of the title and suspended him indefinitely. Sefo informed Palhares manager of their decision prior to announcing it today on The MMA Hour and they will wait to see what the Nevada Athletic Commission does before taking their next step.
The Nevada Athletic Commission is scheduled to have their monthly meeting next week and it’s unknown at this time if Palhares will be part of that meeting.