Jake Shields lost his WSOF 22 title fight to Rousimar Palhares by 3rd round submission but it was the eye pokes before the submission that Shields is crediting with the victory.
Palhares has been on a winning streak since entering WSOF, he was cut from the UFC for holding a submission too long, but his sketchy reputation has followed him. Shields knew of this reputation but still couldn’t avoid tapping to the submission specialist.
Palhares’ camp believe that it was a clean victory and that Shields is upset that he lost:
“I thought Jake Shields put on a great fight, but I think the rest is overblown,” said Palhares’s Manager, Alex Davis. “I didn’t see any eye-gouging. Rousimar has his hands on the face to push away and escape the position. I think Jake Shields was simply whining too much about the supposed eye-pokes and Mazzagatti was influenced by his complaints.
“The damage around Jake’s eyes was caused by the strikes he took on the ground. As for the submission, Mazzagatti was simply too far away when the submission was applied, and he was in the wrong position to stop the fight. The referee needs to be in front of the fighter, otherwise, that fighter has no idea who is tapping on him.”
Shields stands by his claims and feels that there needs to be better refereeing in fights with Palhares:
“One guy is a sociopath, and Mazzagatti is incompetent to ref,” Shields said.
Hard not to come off as a sore loser with quotes like that but his eyes seem to give his statements a bit of validity.
