Illegal elbow ban lifted for unified MMA rules, Jon Jones reacts

The illegal elbow in mixed martial arts is no longer illegal.  The Association of Boxing Commission and Combative Sports lifted the ban on the 12-6 elbows from the Unified Rules for mixed martial arts.  

The ban on the 12-6 elbows has been in place since the Unified Rules were adopted in 2000.  An ABC rules committee voted unanimously to lift the ban.  The lifting of the ban will not go in effect until Nov. 1.  It will be up to the individual state athletic commissions whether to allow them.  

The rule banning the use of the 12-6 elbow reads, “All elbow strikes are legal except for an elbow that is thrown in a downward trajectory (hand traveling from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock). Any elbow thrown with an arc is a legal elbow. The point of the elbow may be used as striking instrument as well as the forearm or the tricep area of the arm.”  

In a February 2006 interview with MMAWeekly Radio, legendary referee “Big” John McCarthy explained why the rule was made and the back history that led to it’s initiation.

“What it was, was when the Unified Rules were put together they took all the organizations. You had the UFC, Pride. You had the IFC. You had Hook-N-Shoot at the time. There were various organizations that all met together in New Jersey. Larry Hazzard is the one that put it together so he could clarify his rules. Marc Ratner was on a phone line for it, and they ended up having everyone sit there and try to come together with what they could be happy with,” explained McCarthy.  

“One of the things that happed was there was an IFC show that happened before that meeting occurred. There were a couple of fights, and because New Jersey wasn’t comfortable with Mixed Martial Arts at the time, there were a couple of fights that went on to change things as far as what they were going to permit and not permit,” added McCarthy.

“You have all these different organizations, and you have all these people with what they want to be able to do, so it’s tough to get people to agree on things. Finally, one of the things that was brought up is in one of the fights a fighter took another guy’s back and tried to sink in a choke. He couldn’t sink in the choke, so he started taking his hand and bringing it up and elbowing to the back of the guy’s head and neck,” McCarthy continued.  

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“The doctor from New Jersey had a conniption about it. He said, ‘I will never ever pass something that allows that type of strike. That could be life threatening,’ and he started going into his thing, and so the one elbow they took out was that elbow, that type of position. The way that they wrote it up, you could interpret it a ton of ways, but the true position they were talking about was the hand coming up to twelve o’clock to six o’clock.”

The most famous incident of a fighter being disqualified due to an illegal elbow came in December 2009 at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale.  Jon Jones fought Matt Hamill and dominated through the first four minutes of the opening round when referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight and disqualified Jones.  It’s remained the only blemish on Jones’ Hall of Fame worthy resume.  

After the ban was lifted, Jones reacted to the news via social media.  “Undefeated then, undefeated now,” Jones wrote.  “We gotta get that loss out of the history books.”

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