WSOFs welterviktsmästare Rousimar Palhares mötte under helgen Jake Shields, en match som fick sig ett omtalat avslut då Rousimar återigen höll i sin submission aningens för länge och fortsatte att lägga tryck på den trots att Shields klappade. Det var dock inte det ända som Jake blev förbannad på, då Palhares vid flertalet tillfällen ska ha petat honom i ögonen.
Detta hade Shields att säga om matchen, via ”Submission Radio”:
Man I was just really pissed. The guy Palhares just gouged my eyes over and over, you know? I haven’t watched the fight yet, I’m not sure if it’s evident on TV, but this guy kept catching his thumb and digging it in my eyes and it’s 100 percent, absolutely deliberate.
I’ve never in 40 fights and maybe 100 submission matches been gouged once. This guy did it over and over at least eight times. I kept telling Mazzagatti who was completely ignoring it and he just allowed this guy to blatantly cheat. And then on top of that, you know, he cranked the submission after I tapped. So it was just…..it was just really irritating.
Yeah, I mean that’s why I was more mad about that than the late submission because I thought it affected my fight. It’s hard to say for sure. I hate being the guy making excuses, it’s not the way I am, but I mean I was winning the fight, and I go in the third round not being able to see good, and I just felt like I also let it get to me mentally, the fact that – I mean that’s my fault for letting it get to me mentally – but the fact that the ref was completely ignoring it. I’d tell him over and over and he did not care.
Här kan ni se hur Jakes ögon såg ut efter matchen:
