CSAC chief 'pretty mad' at Palhares but won't punish him for holding kneebar on Fitch too long

Controversy continues to dog the footsteps of World Series of Fighting welterweight champ Rousimar Palhares. The 34-year-old Brazilian fighter was cut from the UFC in 2013 for holding on to a submission too long in a win against Mike Pierce. That followed a 90 day suspension in 2010 for holding a submission too long on Tomasz Drwal.

Now he's kinda sorta in dutch with CSAC Executive Director Andy Foster for, you guessed it, holding a kneebar too long against Jon Fitch at Saturday's WSOF 16.

Here's what Foster told MMA Fighting.

"He chose to keep it going another few seconds. You can say it's the heat of the moment -- I've heard that too many times from him. I don't think it's enough to punish him or anything. It's real borderline. I'm pretty mad, " said Foster.

"Was it long? Yeah, it was long," he said. "I think if they argued that it wasn't a bit long, then they're kidding themselves or are they not being truthful. Was it beyond reason for anyone else in the world? No. If anyone else in the world did that, we wouldn't be having this conversation. He has a freaking history of this."

For his part, Palhares tells Guilherme Cruz he did nothing wrong.

"I still have to deal with those critics, but I don't understand why people try to humiliate me like that," Palhares told MMAFighting.com of the claims that he held the submission too long. "I just go inside the cage to try to be the best I can be. I don't hold submissions.

"You can see fighters punching opponents two or three times after they are already knocked out," he continued. "For an example, see for how long Ronda Rousey holds her armbars. I don't think she's wrong. In this sport, you won't survive if you don't lock the position really tight. I believe I did what I should have done to win. I didn't do anything wrong. They are just trying to humiliate me because I submit people, or for other reasons I don't know."

For his part Jon Fitch is awaiting the results of his MRI, per David St. Martin.

"It's not killing me," Fitch said post-fight. "I felt a pop. There was a little bit of swelling. It's probably PCL [posterior cruciate ligament] if anything is damaged. I tore it once before. Hopefully maybe I just pulled it. Just making some noise for fun. Hopefully everything's fine. I don't know. PCL is usually like a six week injury with rehab. It sucks. What are you going to do? When we fight, this is what happens."

I wonder if Fitch wishes he'd stuck by his original vow to not fight Palhares?