Apologies, no matter how sincere they may be, will not go unpunished in the MMA game – in this case, the judge, jury and executioner was the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board.

If you watched the UFC 111 PPV, then you probably caught the preliminaries in which Rousimar Palhares took on Tomasz Drwal. Palhares would win the bout via submission, but would come out the loser as well as the State Board suspended Palhares for 90 days because Palhares injured Drwal’s knee by not letting go of the heel hook he placed on him. Palhares subsequently apologized post-fight to Drwal and his camp.

While 90 days doesn’t seem like much time as that’s the normal down time for a MMA fighter, the suspension certainly cannot help Palhares’ career. It remains to be seen if this affects his career in the UFC; I doubt that it will affect him that much. He isn’t the first fighter suspended by an athletic board nor will he be the last after a victory.