Keyword being sport. You know...where there are rules and stuff to protect guys from life altering shit. If it was a street fight then whatever.
But when your a professional fighter, and you do something like this, which could potentially end the career of the other fighter...fuck you, and you shouldn't be allowed to fight professionally again.
If it's an accident, then fine...that can be forgiven. But this is not his first rodeo with this type of stuff, and he even does it in BJJ matches.
Clearly the guys got some mental issues...and will end up going to far one day if he hasn't already.
chalice - the time period between when the ref tries to get palhares to stop and when he lets go really wasn't long enough to justify all the hate and outrage.
never let things like "evidence" and "fact" get in the way of a good witchhunt... everyone was WAITING to see him hold on too long, that's what they EXPECTED to see and that is what they saw. Subconcious or no, everyone starts counting from the TAPS instead of the REF.
Fuck it, I'm a fan. If it stops people from going batshit jerking out of subs confident that their opponent won't really hurt them, so be it.
I don't get it either. Palhares is awesome and that didn't look too excessive to me. I think people are sensitive because of him holding onto leglocks in the past.
Kinda shitty, but they're taught to not let go or stop striking until the ref steps in. In the case of Babalu the ref stepped in, told Babalu to let go and he continued for several seconds. Palhares let go when the ref stepped in. The honorable tap between two fighters don't happen much any more because if the fighter tapped and you let go before the ref intervenes, that said fighter could say I didn't tap and you just let go of a fight winning sub.
Same thing happened in UFC 1. Royce got the choke on Ken and Ken tapped. Royce let go, but the ref didn't intervene when Ken tapped. So ken denied tapping at first, but Royce said "you know you tapped, but we can keep going" then Ken did the honorable thing and admitted he tapped.
If Palhares had let go when Pierce tapped it would have been the right thing to do, but then Pierce could have argued. For the fighter, it's better to hold on to that sub until the ref breaks it, then there can be no denying who won.
The above, plus I would bet it's somewhat intentional. Put that fear in guys that they're risking their knees every time they step in with him. Not saying it's right, but no different than how brutal strikers like Wand used to not just beat guys but scar them up. Try to leverage that fear against future opponents.
Palhares used to let go at the fighter tap, instead of the ref. At least once i can recall the ref missed it and the opponents played it off so the fight continued.
He vowed not to let that happen again. Tough situation as you are instructed to keep fighting until the ref steps in. There was only a moment between the ref stepping and him letting go. Looks worse in slow replays...
