WSOF's Jake Shields upset NSAC ignored Rousimar Palhares' eye-gouges

After his controversial submission loss to Rousimar Palhares at WSOF 22, Jake Shields’ biggest concern was not that Palhares held on to his fight-winning kimura for too long, but rather that he felt he was repeatedly and intentionally eye-gouged during the bout.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission didn’t seem to share that concern, and during a recent hearing, the commissioners addressed only Palhares’ (18-6) extended hold and not the attacks that left Shields (31-8-1) with blurry vision in his left eye for weeks after the event. The NSAC handed Palhares a two-year suspension due to his failure to release the submission in the Aug. 1 main event.

The way the hearing played out left Shields, who was given 50 hours of community service for lashing out at Palhares after the bout, unhappy with the process.

“I’m not big on long suspensions,” Shields told MMAjunkie Radio. “But he’s a case where it’s so extreme that he needs something. Obviously the holding submissions has gone on multiple times. To me, the eye-gouging was even worse. He was trying to gouge my eyes out. That was absurd and obscene. It’s kind of ridiculous that (referee Steve) Mazzagatti never got anything.

“Even the Nevada case, when they were hearing the case against him, they never mentioned the eye-gouging. It was only holding the submission too long. I think having to admit to eye-gouging would be admitting that the referee didn’t do anything. And they wanted me to come and testify against him. But I’m not going to come on there and be a part of it when they’re not even addressing the real issue.”

Despite his anger toward Palhares, Shields wasn’t doing backflips when the punishment was handed down. He seemingly wanted the situation to be one that could be handled in-house by the promotion.

“I don’t know, I clearly don’t like the guy, and I guess he deserves to be suspended,” Shields said. “I guess that’s about right. I’m not a huge fan of commissions taking charge of that. But it’s probably something he deserves.”

Check out the full video above.

And for more on WSOF 22, check out the MMA Events section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show, available on SiriusXM Ch. 93, is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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