Seemingly lost in all the finger wagging at Steve Mazzagatti and Rousimar Palhares is World Series of Fighting’s role in facilitating this circus.
It has been rather easy for Ray Sefo and Ali Abdel Aziz to revel in the MMA media storm surrounding the fallout of WSOF 22. After all, they are getting an awful lot of coverage for an event placed opposite one of the biggest UFC events of the year. You have Aziz tweeting about “Sefo dropping the hammer” and Sefo coming on the MMA Hour for a personal mic drop moment instead of going to the fighter’s agent or lawyer first, apparently in violation of Palhares’ contract.
While on the surface to many fans, this appears like WSOF “doing the right thing”, it is really just the culmination of what WSOF set in motion the moment they rewarded him for his past behavior by granting him a title fight in his very first fight with the promotion, just months after being cut from the UFC for cranking the submission on Mike Pierce.
The reality is, they always knew this was coming and they’ve been ready for it all along. They’ve never been in the Rousimar Palhares business for anything other than what his controversy brings.
Look, I get it. Promoters do what they have to do. In the post-post Pride, post-Strikeforce era that leagues like WSOF and Bellator find themselves trying to exist in, the reality is harsh for prospective number-2 promotions in North America.
These promotions have to abandon their moral compass just to survive, much less thrive. Bellator, in order to grow, had to abandon everything which made them sustainable and put on a main event with fighters both so bad and so tarnished that it is literally impossible for anyone to tell if the fight was fixed or if it was just one of the worst bouts ever to headline a major show.
WSOF, despite claims of being the number 2, is actually a distant third.
In order to gain any sort of notoriety, they’ve been forced into signing the worst spare parts from the UFC. From Thiago Silva to Palhares, WSOF has made it clear they will sign anyone they think will get ratings.
Granted, they’ve also signed fading stars (in the brown dwarf sense of the word) known for being less than entertaining grinders such as Fitch, Shields and Okami. They signed these fighters because they were highly ranked. But you know what they didn’t do? Grant any of them a title fight in their first bout with the promotion.
Despite the fact all of them were higher ranked than Palhares, none of them had an opportunity to fight for the title off the bat. Palhares did. This was done strictly to capitalize on the controversy he brings.
For WSOF to feign outrage now, and throw Mazzagatti under the bus, when they have rewarded and profited off this behavior for over a year, is disingenuous at best. What kind of message did they think they were really sending Palhares by giving him a title shot in his first outing after being cut by the UFC for cranking submissions?
Palhares’ first bout with the promotion at WSOF 9, at the time, was the second highest rated show they had done. Initially, the strategy worked, but since then the ratings for other shows blew that out of the water, and his defense at WSOF 16 performed comparatively poorly ratings wise. They’ve gotten all the blood they can out of this turnip, and unfortunately for Jake Shields, his eyes as well.
After he cranked the submission and gouged the eyes, it was time to cut bait for all the media to see, and it looks like the strategy has worked. The fans have mostly eaten this up. Although I am glad fighters like Fitch, Shields and Okami have a soft place to land when they leave the UFC, I wish they had a place which cared about their safety above ratings.
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