The heelhook from hell, a story about Rousimar Palhares

Whasap, whasap, whasaaap homies! It's yo boy, Armbar, with another edition of Armbar's mma world. As you may have noticed I'm feeling a bit "down with the hood" today(I don't even know what that means) since I just binge watched like 7eps of Ballers and suddenly I talk like I just came straight outta Compton and I'm a crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube. I'm hoping It'll wear off.

Moving along, today I'm gonna take a moment and share some thoughts regarding the currently most controversial  man in all of MMA. Rousimar Palhares. Now let's get this show started.


The Tree Stump*
Last  weekend didn't just saw Ronda Rousey make another first round, less than a minute one sided victory. Oh no. It also saw 2 former UFC welterweights fighting for World Series of Fighting's welterweight title. The two fighters in question were Strikeforce , UFC veteran Jake Shields and the reigning and defending WSOF champion, the former UFC middle&welterweight, Rousimar Palhares. Since Shields is famous for his wrestling credentials and Rousimar is infamous for his terrifying jiu jitsu, grappling fireworks were expected and boy did we get fireworks. Jake Shields was controlling the fight for solid 2 rounds while fighting off Rousimar's near endless submission attempts*. Then at a midway point of round 3 a visibly out of breath Jake went for a takedown on a fresh Palhares and...well, I'll let this gif tell the rest of the story.

An outstanding display of Jiu Jitsu was left in the shadow of Rousimar's inability to let go of the submission even after Jake Shields started tapping like his life depended on it the moment the hold was locked in. Now this unfortunate event is no accident. Palhares has a looong and very painful history of holding on to a submission for an unnecessary amount of time.



Heelhook from hell
Rousimar has been a dangerous fighter since his early fighting days. In 2007., Rousimar had his 5th professional fight against fellow Brazilian Claudio Mattos and won the fight 15 seconds into the first round with a heel hook. The heel hook left Mattos screaming in pain in the ring with medical staff tending to his leg.

                                           Coincidence or not, Mattos didn't fight again until 2009


The controversy followed "Toquinho" in his next fight against Helio Dipp jr where the referee literally had to break Rousimar's choke hold with all his might. From here it only got worse. The trend of not letting go of submission continued as his fondness for heel hooks and kneebars grew. Even though he was a highly controversial fighter, Rousimar eventually made it to the UFC with his infamy following him. Against Tomasz Drawl, the referee, again, had to pull him off Tomasz' leg as Tomasz screamed in pain. However, this time there were consequences. He was suspended for 90 days for not letting go of the submission in time. He then tried his luck in ADCC where he came in second in his weight class but as always, controversy didn't escape him. In a very weird match against David Avellan he dislocated Avellan's knee with another, horrifying and painful kneebar that left orthopedic surgeons around the world rubbing their hands in joy.

                                                                   source

His UFC career began to wobble as other fighters began to find solutions for his deadly but predictable fighting style. He stringed together a couple of losses, the most infamous loss coming from Alan Belcher. Who took the fight to Rousimar and even outgrappled him.

Alan Belcher pummeling Rousimar with some vicious ground and pound, source

Welterweight debut
Afer a short losing streak and a PED suspension, Rousimar came back with a vengeance in a lower weight class. By this time he gained infamy among the entire MMA community as a fighter that does not let go of you even if you tap, scream, yell, pray for a miracle or try casting a sleeping spell. In his fight against Mike Pierce he had a lot of eyes pointed at him. Many people wanted nothing more then a reason to punish him for his past(and present) wrong doings. Rousimar didn't disappoint them. Mike Pierce felt the full might of the tree stump's wrath when Palhares locked in a heel hook that, as always, didn't release until the referee literally had to stick his head into Palhares' grip. Punishment? Release of his UFC contract and a one year ban in professional fighting. The rocky road of redemption led Rousimar to WSOF, even though Ray Sefo(owner) ruled out the option initially, he gave the humble Brazilian a chance and a warning. Since his signing, Rousimar made short work of Steve Carl and Jon Fitch with each fight being more controversial then the last one. Thus, our story reaches full circle as we arrive at Rousimar's most recent controversial win.  Last weekend's submission over Jake Shields.


Fall from grace

He has since been stripped of his title, suspended indefinitely and will likely, given his past, get an even greater ban from the Athletic Commission. This all puts Rousimar's future as an active MMA competitor in serious jeopardy. Does he deserve "the death sentence" and be banned for life? Most of his opponents would gladly see him burn at the stake for his knee hatred. I personally, as a fan of his ruthless and nearly indefensible style of grappling, would love nothing more than to see him fight again. However the punishment must fit the crime. He is a repeated offender in a sport where every extra second a submission  is unnecessary held could have a career ending effect. MMA is all about the art of violence in a controlled, secure environment. Rousimar's fighting style relies on his brute strength, and a high level of jiu jitsu skill with a serious lack of  control and fight awareness. Which makes him a huge risk every time he enters a fight. Will he hold on to a submission for too long?Will he let go this time? Maybe he'll get so zoned out in a fight that he will crank one of his deadly submission just hard enough and long enough to cause permanent damage to a fighters joint.

                                        
                      Frank Mir demonstrates what happens if a joint lock isn't stopped in time

As much as I hate to admit it, Rousimar just doesn't make a strong enough argument to be allowed to fight again. His former coach Murilo Bustamante, talked about taking Rousimar to specialist in order to fix his "zoning out" problem and having many arguments with him over not letting go of submissions in time. Indicating that perhaps even given the best effort, Palhares just does not accept the existence of a problem. Which is unacceptable in modern day contact sport where fighters get injured all the time even without the further assistance of other fighters such as Rousimar Palhares.

* His nickname, "Toquinho" is Portuguese for "little tree stump". He earned his nickname because of his short stature, very muscular physique and wide frame. 

* I'd like to address that there was also the controversy of Rousimar alleged eye gouging of Jake Shields. I didn't mention that in my article because, you can't see clearly enough what exactly was going on.  Rousimar was lifting Jakes head to sneak in short elbow from the bottom and I'm guessing made accidental contact with Jake's eyes. Jake complained to the referee who only warned Palhares. Regardless, he has been accused of doing so and Ray Sefo and people with less bias then me ruled that he did gouge Jake's eyes. Here's the fight vid, judge by yourself.

That's all from me. I have 2 more articles, locked and ready to go. Polishing them up as we speak. As per usual, leave a comment bellow,  like me on Facebook and when you're done doing that. Just re read my old stuff. In the words of Porky Pig, that's all folks!