Mountains are being made out of molehills, that much is for sure. Of course, Rousimar Palhares has a stigma surrounding him and his holding on of submissions for far too long, but not in his fight against Steve Carl. Even Carl himself believes nothing was wrong with it, neither does Ray Sefo or Ali Abdel-Aziz – the guys who run WSOF:
BloodyElbow got the quote:
“The submission happened right in front of Ali and I. I thought as soon as the referee told him to let go, he let go. So if you think that he held it too long, then you’re crazy.
Ali Abdel-Aziz”
“I think everybody needs to leave this kid alone,. “He went through a lot already, and he’s a champ now. I think everybody should be congratulating him and praising him as a champ.“When you’re talking about an inside inverted heel hook, come talk to anybody in this room, any black belt in the room, you don’t have time to tap. If it’s a regular heel hook from the outside, you do have time to roll out of it. He turned it into a kneebar, and after that he went into an inverted heel hook. Many, many guys I know, including myself, I popped my MCL because you don’t have time to tap.”