("Stop it? My naughtiness, I thought you said, ‘Snap it.’"

When Rousimar Palhares inexplicably stopped to tell the ref that he thought Nate Marquardt‘s leg felt greasy in their Ultimate Fight Night 22 bout Wednesday night, armchair fighters, referees and coaches alike collectively yelled, "What the hell are you doing?" at their television screens.

It turns out, they weren’t the only ones yelling.

Palhares’ longtime Brazilian Top Team trainer and coach, Murilo Bustamante told Tatame that he too was screaming from the sidelines for his charge not to let up and says that they have learned from the rookire mistake that may have cost Rousimar a title shot in the near future.

“We’ve talked about it a lot, he knows what he did wrong. I guarantee it won’t happen again, he learned the lesson on the worst possible way, paying for his distraction and lack of naughtiness," Bustamante explained. "Maybe the other fighter could stop to see what it was about, but Nate kept on going and didn’t do anything illegal. It was a lesson learned. It happens.”


I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that the word "naughtiness" was somehow lost in translation and that Busta said "lack of discipline" or "lack of control," but if we’ve learned anything from Paulo Filho, it’s that nothing those zany Brazilians do should come as a surprise.

Anyway, Murilo goes on to infer that Marquardt should have stopped to ask Palhares, "What’t the problem, guy?" which is somewhat silly when you think about it as Rousimar could have seized the opportunity to finish him when Nate dropped his guard and capitalized on his "lack of naughtiness."

The last instruction the referee gives the fighters before telling them to touch gloves is,"Protect yourselves at all times." Nate followed the directive and, for whatever reason, whether it was because he didn’t understand it or because he thought he would get the DQ, Rousimar didn’t, which, in my opinion is his own fault, plain and simple.

Bustamante concurs.

“He thought that the guy had vaseline and made the mistake to try to complain about it to the referee on the wrong moment. He was naïve at that moment, he should have complained during the break and he’d check it," Said Bustamante. "The guy didn’t do anything illegal, he took advantage of the lack of naughtiness of Rousimar. The Commission checked and they said there was no grease on his ankle. It’s over now, let’s move on. We learn from our mistakes."

Marquardt has admitted that he warmed up a little more vigorously before the fight to make himself more slippery, but that is far from being against the rules. He didn’t feel like getting his ankle Tomasz Drwal‘d and I can’t say that I blame him considering that he was facing Rousimar "Snap, Crackle, Pop" Palhares.