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As Rousimar Palhares faces backlash, some arguments in his defense don't add up


rousimar-palhares-14.jpgAfter Rousimar Palhares‘ controversial submission win over Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 29, I heard one question repeated, in one form or another, over and over again: What is this guy’s problem?

Why does he continue to hold submissions for far too long? Why would he keep doing it even after being suspended for it by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board? Why can’t he learn from his own mistakes?

In my post-fight column, I offered a couple possible explanations. One was that he might be doing it as part of a strategy, and the other was that he might simply be a jerk who lacks the proper respect for the sport and his opponents.

Now Palhares’ manager, Alex Davis, has offered a third possible explanation in a column on MMAjunkie.com. According to Davis, Palhares doesn’t know he’s doing this. He does it “subconsciously.” As Davis wrote to me in an email, Palhares “space[s] out” sometimes, both in fights and in training. Davis admits that he doesn’t know why Palhares does it, but insists that he doesn’t do it on purpose and won’t do it again.

All due respect to Davis, who’s always struck me as a responsible, trustworthy manager, but that doesn’t make sense. Those pieces simply don’t fit together. They also don’t do much to excuse what’s become a troubling pattern of behavior from Palhares.

What Davis is offering here is essentially a temporary insanity defense. Palhares is a kind, gentle soul outside the cage, he says, but once inside he sometimes loses control and does things that are, by Davis’ own admission, “wrong” and “unethical.” But it’s not his fault. Poor guy can’t help it.

In Davis’ defense, there is some evidence to back up his theory. We can point to several situations in fights where Palhares has behaved strangely. There was that time he simply stopped fighting against Nate Marquardt (and got quickly TKO’d), or that time he stopped fighting against Dan Miller (and had to be called down off the top of the cage after being informed that the fight wasn’t over yet). It seems entirely possible that Davis is right, that Palhares isn’t doing this on purpose. But if you don’t know why he does it, how can you stop him? How can you say it won’t happen again? And how many second chances do you give him before you decide that it’s not worth the risk to his opponents?

In Palhares’ own comments in a video posted after the most recent incident, he describes his actions quite differently. He doesn’t think he did anything wrong. He describes it all as a “misunderstanding.” He also describes lucidly and in great detail the moments leading up to the submission, which casts doubt on the theory that he does all this while in some strange fugue state.

He sure sounds like he was conscious during the finish, even if his explanation for holding the submission – he didn’t feel the tap because Pierce tapped the referee, who just happened to have thrown his body on top of Palhares in an attempt to get him to release the heel hook – doesn’t exactly add up.

Pierce did tap Palhares. He tapped him frantically and repeatedly. Then the referee dove in to stop it. Then Pierce tapped the ref. Then Palhares gave the leg one last, potentially damaging crank. If you’ve got a submission locked on and you look down and see the referee lying on top of you, that should be a pretty good indication that it’s time to let go. You shouldn’t need to feel another tap in order to know that the fight is over.

Had this been an isolated incident, fine, maybe we give him the benefit of the doubt. But this is at least the third time Palhares has done something like this, and the second time he’s been suspended for it by an athletic commission. At what point does it cease to matter why he’s doing it, or what he’s thinking (or not thinking) as he does it? How many dirty moves do you get to pull before we label you a dirty fighter, regardless of how nice a guy you might be outside the cage?

Davis would have us believe that Palhares is a “victim of public opinion.” He says it’s unfair of us to pass judgment on him, and that doing so is “idiotic” and “not reporting.” We agree on one thing. Opinion columns are not reporting. They’re opinion columns. They contain value judgments, just like Davis’ opinion column contained value judgments about the fan and media backlash against his fighter. That’s fine. That’s how this works.

The truth is, I can’t say why Palhares does this any more than Davis can. Maybe it’s intentional and maybe it isn’t. But if we’re to believe that it’s out of Palhares’ control, that he can’t quite stop himself once he’s in the cage, I’m not sure that’s a great argument in his favor. I am sure that it’s not a sufficient excuse. A fighter who can’t control himself isn’t a victim – he’s a problem. And until Palhares gets his problem sorted out, he shouldn’t be fighting anyone, anywhere.



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