Joe Rogan has witnessed some truly terrifying fighters during his time as UFC commentator, but one stands out to him more than most.
UFC icon Joe Rogan has been the heartbeat of the commentary team since 2002 when he made his color commentary debut with the promotion. During that time, Rogan has become one of the most recognizable voices and names in the sport and he has witnessed some incredible moments in the Octagon. However, there is one fighter who stands out more than most for Rogan, and that is Rousimar Palhares.
Who is Rousimar Palhares and what happened to his UFC career?
In 2008, the UFC signed a 28-year-old Brazilian prospect nicknamed ‘Toquinho’, who was blitzing his way through the regional scene in Brazil with his tremendous grappling. Palhares made his UFC debut later that year against Ivan Salaverry and announced himself in the promotion with a dominant first-round win via armbar. However, it was Palhares’ background and story prior to joining the UFC that made him so feared among fighters.
‘Toquinho’ grew up in abject poverty outside of a city in Brazil and used to support his family by working in the countryside at a young age. The jiu-jitsu specialist has previously talked about how there were times when there wasn’t enough food for everyone and he had to eat pig slop just to feed himself. Palhares was considered one of the most naturally gifted grapplers of his generation, and it was known that he had one of the most vicious leg locks in MMA. “He came from a really, really bad childhood, and he’s talked about it in depth about growing up on a farm and being forced to eat pig slop when he was a little boy. The cut he has on his chest, he had to seal that up with glue (himself),” Joe Rogan said on an episode of his podcast.
In 2013, after a relatively successful stretch in the UFC fighting the likes of Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt, he was released following a series of unsportsmanlike showings.
Rousimar Palhares was released from the UFC for consistently hanging onto submissions.
During his impressive career, Palhares unfortunately became known as one of the ‘dirtiest’ MMA fighters in the history of the sport, as on several occasions he held onto submissions for far too long despite his opponents tapping out. It first happened in the UFC during his 2009 heel hook win over Lucio Linhares, and after latching onto the leg of Linhares, he didn’t want to separate despite eliciting the tap from his compatriot. In 2013, Palhares scored another heel hook submission, this time over Mike Pierce, and despite it being the only submission win on UFC Fight Night 29, he was denied a Submission of the Night bonus for ‘unsportsmanlike conduct.’
Just a day after that event, UFC CEO Dana White announced in an interview with ESPN that the promotion was cutting ties with the Brazilian grappler for his continued antics. “When he’s in competition, he just doesn’t wanna let it go. They make him let it go, and he tried even though he knew that they were gonna get mad at him if he didn’t let go, still didn’t quite let go,” Rogan said. “And then they were like, ‘Get the f*ck out of here’, they kicked him out of the UFC, the first guy ever to get kicked out of the UFC for holding onto submissions. He was particularly scary when he fought because he was so strong and his body was so well designed for heel hooks, he could just grab your body and rip you apart, man,” Rogan continued.
Palhares went on to sign with World Series of Fighting (now the PFL), where he won their welterweight title, but his unsportsmanlike conduct didn’t stop there. In 2015, after submitting Jake Shields in his title fight, Palhares was released from WSOF, once again for holding onto submissions for too long, tarnishing his career from there on out. However, the 44-year-old is controversially set to return to professional MMA as he has been signed by Global Fight League, who announced their inaugural event will finally take place in 2025.
