UFC
Rousimar Palhares insists he's not a dirty fighter, argues he didn't gouge Jake Shields' eyes or hold submission long at WSOF 22
Aug 3, 2015 - 11:20:54 AM Rousimar Palhares insists he's not a dirty fighter, argues he didn't gouge Jake Shields' eyes or hold submission long at WSOF 22

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Rousimar Palhares doesn't get it.

The WSOF Welterweight Champion is either oblivious to his own actions, or has fundamental lack of understanding as to how wrong he's been in the cage. To wit: Palhares' own words regarding his fight with Jake Shields on Saturday at WSOF 22.

"I just protected myself," Palhares said of Shields' eye gouging complaints in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "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.

(Nope. No fingers in the eyes whatsoever.)

"I did not hold his arm [after the tap]," he continued regarding holding yet another submission long. "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."

Penick's Analysis: What's sad is his complete inability to recognize his infractions or to accept responsibility for them. There is no benefit of the doubt with him because it continues to happen time and time again. Him saying he didn't put his fingers in Shields' eyes is so laughably and demonstrably false, because the damage was apparent during the fight, and looked even worse a day later. There are bruises, scrapes, cuts, and more that were not caused by punches from Palhares, but from his fingers and thumbs continuously raking Shields from the bottom. It's ridiculous, and his inability to accept any of that makes any punishment coming even more just.