Rousimar Palhares and the 5 Dirtiest Fighters in MMA History

Rousimar Palhares finally exhausted his reserve of plausible deniability last week when he gouged the eyes and overcranked the shoulder of Jake Shields at World Series of Fighting 22.

The stunts cost Palhares his WSOF welterweight title and earned him a suspension from both the promotion and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. A NSAC hearing on Palhares' future is scheduled for September.

It was just the latest in a very long line of incidents with Palhares, mainly involving holding submissions after an opponent has tapped out and the referee has intervened.

The whole thing got us to thinking. Where does Paul Harris the meme-launching man rank on the list of MMA's all-time dirtiest fighters? Forthwith, we researched, we recollected and we came up with this, the five dirtiest fighters in the history of our great sport. We've thrown in some honorable mentions as well.

They are ranked based on how dirty they were, how egregious their fouls have been and the quantity or frequency of those offenses. And we're thinking only about inside-the-cage transgressions here, as opposed to out-of-competition offenses like performance-enhancing drug usage or run-ins with the law.

In other words, this list of dirty fighters takes the term fairly literally. These are guys who fight in a dirty fashion. So if you post a comment wondering about the absence of Vitor Belfort or "Lightning" Lee Murray, prepare to be ignored. Thank you for your understanding.

Honorable Mentions

Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Renato Sobral (right) held this choke on David Heath after Heath tapped out.

Here they are, listed in no particular order:

• Chuck Liddell
• Urijah Faber
• Jose Aldo
• Keith Hackney
• Nate Marquardt
• Yoshihiro Akiyama
• Matt Lindland
• Dan Henderson
• B.J. Penn
• Josh Koscheck
• Jon Jones
• Ricco Rodriguez
• Renato "Babalu" Sobral
• Wes Sims
• Michael Bisping
• Shinya Aoki
• Colton Smith

5. Cheick Kongo

Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Cheick Kongo (left) kicks Mirko Cro Cop.

Division: Heavyweight
Status: Active

You know a fighter's dirty when his or her nickname directly refers to said dirt. So it goes for a Mr. "Cup" Cheick Kongo.

In the world of dirty fighters, Kongo is a specialist. He's the Demian Maia of dirtiness. Kongo attacks the groin and that's all there is to it. You know it's coming. He knows you know it's coming. And there's nothing anyone's going to do to stop it.

There are a few other illegalities in Kongo's jacket, but as this list from Cage Potato makes clear, the groin strike is his bread and butter. 

Travis Browne, Paul Buentello, Mostapha Al-Turk and Mirko Cro Cop have all suffered Kongo's affronts to their manhoods. The repeated knees to the jewels of Cro Cop, which happened at UFC 75 in 2007, was probably the most egregious and painful of the bunch. The ref never deducted a point—a common tradition for groin shots, making them a high-ROI proposition—and Kongo went on to win.

Now 40 years old and fighting below the Bellator banner, Kongo has seemingly toned it down. But he hasn't been squeaky clean, as evidenced by claims of shorts-grabbing in his fight with Vitaly Minakov at Bellator 115. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

4. Gerard Gordeau

Holly Stein/Getty Images

Division: None
Status: Retired

It's difficult to properly contextualize the first-generation guys on a list like this, given that pretty much everything was legal during the tournament era. For example, take Keith Hackney, whose seven or eight thousand groin shots on Joe Son (who deserved every one of them and more, by the way) were perfectly legal at the time.

All the more telling, then, that Gerard Gordeau still manages to stand out despite the more lenient rules under which he competed. Despite competing in only four pro MMA bouts, Gordeau did an astonishing amount of damage.

In what turned out to be his final MMA fight, Gordeau gouged the right eye of opponent Yuki Nakai so badly that Nakai permanently lost sight in that eye. He lost the fight by submission anyway, mainly because Yuki Nakai is a beast.

But there's more. You may remember that Gordeau was a part of the little event that started it all, Mr. UFC 1. You may remember him facing sumo wrestler Teila Tuli, and literally kicking Tuli's teeth in...to his own foot.

Gordeau went on to reach the finals against eventual tournament winner Royce Gracie, who he bit. 

And hey, speaking of biting, let's see who's next on the list!

3. Mike Kyle

Division: Heavyweight/Light heavyweight 
Status: Active

Mike Kyle is a renaissance cheater. You want to check off a cheating box, there's a Mike Kyle fight for that.

There was the time he allegedly bit Wes Sims (a pretty dirty fighter in his own right; see honorable mentions) on the chest at UFC 47. Four months later, at UFC 49, the referee deducted a point from Kyle after he repeatedly Cheick-Kongo'd Justin Eilers. That penalty ultimately didn't matter; Eilers knocked Kyle out, to great fan approval, just moments later.

Dicey moves like this also worked in Kyle's favor at least once. In 2005, with the Pancrase promotion, he was awarded a technical-decision win after opponent Tsuyoshi Kohsaka was unable to continue because of eye pokes.

As hard as it may be to believe, none of this covers the most ignominious stretch of Kyle's career. That came over a two-month span in 2006.

In March of that year, Kyle's fight with Krzysztof Soszyński in the Strikeforce promotion ended in a technical draw after a Kyle eye poke. As it turns out, that was just an appetizer for the main course of despicability.

In May, Kyle was disqualified from a WEC contest with Brian Olsen after he knocked out a downed Olsen with an illegal kick, then punched the unconscious Olsen several times after the bell. Kyle was so out of control that a second referee (Herb Dean) had to come into the cage to restore order. Go to the 2:45 mark of the video and see it for yourself.

The WEC suspended Kyle soon after. He never fought for that promotion again, and found himself out of action altogether for nearly two years. 

Did he return a changed man? Oh, of course not. In 2010, a bout with Travis Wiuff was ruled a no-contest after Kyle—you guessed it—punched Wiuff after the bell.

Was Kyle run out of the sport? Sort of. But he's still active today, competing for our good friends the World Series of Fighting. Why, he just fought last weekend at the infamous WSOF 22!

Kyle was beaten without incident.

2. Rousimar Palhares

Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports

Division: Welterweight/middleweight
Status: Active

Congratulations, Rousimar Palhares. You've leapfrogged up to No. 2 on this list. And that's to say nothing of your hero status among the nation's orthopedic surgeons.

His body of work more than justifies the adulation. And it goes way beyond the aforementioned transgressions against Shields.

For the sake of expedience, let's create a bullet list, shall we? Beginning with the most recent incident before Shields and working our way back, here is a list of every controversial Palhares moment, all of which have to do with him holding onto a dangerous submission move (most frequently the heel hook) after an opponent has tapped and/or a referee has intervened:

• Jon Fitch
• Steve Carl
• Mike Pierce (this is the one that got Palhares released from the UFC)
• Tomasz Drwal (suspended 90 days afterward)
• Most grappling tournaments he enters

There you have it. He repeatedly offers wide-eyed denials in each case, including most recently with Shields, but fans and others may finally be ready to drop the hammer on him, like a leg lock that is never relinquished.

1. Gilbert Yvel

Division: Heavyweight/Light heavyweight
Status: Retired

When you have three losses by disqualification, you're doing something wrong.

But there's Yvel for you. Let's examine each of these DQs in turn.

The crown jewel of that resume is probably the single dirtiest in-cage move in the history of major league MMA, in which he cold-cocked a referee back in 2004. Check the video for that one.

So that's one DQ. The second came in 2001, after he eye-gouged Don Frye in the Pride promotion.

The third (or the first, chronologically speaking) happened all the way back in 1998, and it came thanks to our old friend, biting.

He also has a history of looking for fights after the bell.

It all combines to badly corrode a public image that could have been pretty good, given his talent. Think of him as the striking version of Palhares, only slightly better and slightly dirtier. All hail the king of dirt!

Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter. 

As usual, all records and record-related information provided by Sherdog.com.