Palhares says he's 'not a dirty fighter' following Shields incident

Despite dozens of incidents proving otherwise, Rousimar Palhares insists he's not a dirty fighter.

"I'm so sad, because I'm not a dirty fighter," Palhares told MMAFighting.com's Shaun Al-Shatti through a translator. "I just had good position, you know? And sometimes the fight is difficult. If you see the fight, I won in the striking with Jake Shields, I put a lot of hands on him, and I put him in (bad) positions. So when guys say that I'm dirty, I'm so sad about that."

Palhares' victory over Shields at WSOF 22 last week was marred by controversy, as the welterweight champion repeatedly gouged Shields' eyes, and then appeared to crank on a fight-ending kimura long after Shields tapped and the referee tried to intervene.

"I did not hold his arm (after the tap)," Palhares said. "The (referee) said to me before the fight, 'Just go out there, if I put my hand on you, stop.' And when he put his hand on me, I stopped. I stopped. Sometimes in the fight, it's hard, it's difficult to feel something. When it felt it, I (stopped)."

Palhares was jettisoned from the UFC a few years ago for similar conduct, and WSOF vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz is considering stripping him of the title.

According to Shields' manager, Tareq Azim, merely stripping Palhares of his title isn't enough.

"I think he should be kicked out of the sport," Azim said. "That's why I love what the UFC did. The UFC made a statement that, look, this isn't good for the sport. This isn't good for the brand. This isn't good for anything. He's ruining careers."