Wednesday night at UFC Fight Night 29, Rousimar Palhares earned an impressive victory over Mike Pierce via heel hook submission. The only problem was that Palhares may have held on to the hold too long, as Pierce was physically and verbally tapping out. Palhares didn’t release the hold until the referee was physically on top of him. UFC president, Dana White, wasn’t happy with Palhares and relayed that message through UFC International executive, Marshall Zelaznik.
“The commission is investigating the length of time he held that submission, so, we’re pending that investigation and we’re not actually issuing a ‘Submission of the Night’ bonus…. There has obviously been a bit of history with ‘Toquinho’ where he has held some submissions in the past — he has had some controversial issues surrounding his submissions. Dana reacted very strongly to it, and a lot of the executives in the company and the commission reacted strongly to it. We’ve decided in the betterment of judgement to just withhold any judgement at all and I suppose that if the commission comes back with a favorable finding that we can re-evaluate whether or not an award is given. But, right now. we’re not making a commitment to it.”
This isn’t the first time Palhares has been down this road. He was suspended for 90 days for holding on to a submission too long vs. Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111. If the decision is upheld, Palhares could be facing a significant suspension and maybe even being released from the UFC.
Do you think Palhares held on too long?
H/T: MMA Mania