My thoughts on Palhares being BANNED FOR LIFE from the UFC

Wow.  First it cost  him a 50,000$ bonus.  Then it cost him his job.  Dana White announced Rousimar ‘Toquinho’ Palhares has been released from the UFC and essentially ”Banned” for life.  Toquinho has a long history of going hard after a fighter has ”tapped” or quit.  He is also known for his leglock submissions, especially the heel hook, which has been known to tear many an ACL, MCL, Meniscus some of which have been career ending.

A former Brazilian Top Team fighter, Toquinho has long had a reputation of holding on to footlocks, not only in the UFC but also ADCC when he won gold in 2011.  To really understand ”why” he has this reputation, and what type of mindset a guy like this might have to have, I found a cool blog written by Brian Mclaughlin 

Truthfully Palhares reminds me a lot of a Mike Tyson type fighter.  He really is a wild card.  As a ‘professional athlete’ we expect our opponent to honor the rules we agree to compete with and knowing someone deliberately disregards the rules is intimidating.  While many of  us know how to ‘fight’ when we are competing, we are doing so as athletes with expectations of an agreement on the rules, factor in the seriousness of a flagrant foul in our  sport, and people could legitimately be charged with Assault.

While he only held it for an extra second and a half, that is more than enough to cause serious damage to the knee, which is why footlocks should really only be preformed once the basics have been mastered in class.

Personally I would not want to fight an opponent with Toquinho’s reputation.  It was impressive when Alan Belcher TKO’d him going for a foot lock, however I can’t help but to think how many fighters wish they would have tapped sooner against this guy…in the gym, in the ring,…

Banned for life seems a bit extreme.  He was given a 90 day suspension for his actions, which is the second time he has been suspended in the UFC for holding onto a submission hold too long.  Obviously he has proven to be a repeat offender.  I don’t think he deserves the Pete Rose lifetime ban however, eve Tyson was allowed to return to Major Boxing after his biting incident.

While the UFC isn’t the only show in town…its the only one where Palhares will be able to get a 60,000$ Sub of the Night bonus.  Other promotions like Bellator, One FC, M-1 simply are not in the same pay scales.

I would love to see Palhares rebound and get the psychological training needed to return to the UFC eventually.  I always wanted to see him and Hector Lombard throw down.  That said, matchups against Paul Daley, Ben Askren, and a few others could be fun to watch as well.

What are your thoughts? Should he be banned for life from returning to the UFC?