Over the years, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has received quite a bit of scrutiny regarding a few rules. But that is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Now, the MMA promotion has adopted two changes to the rule book. One of these changes abolished the 12-6 elbow strikes as a foul. Meanwhile, in the other, the definition of a grounded fighter witnessed an update. 

While these changes in the unified rules were made about 3 months ago by the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combat Sports, UFC Edmonton this weekend will be the very first event where these changes will be implemented. But how would these changes impact the fighters in the coming times?

How would the legalization of 12-6 elbows affect UFC fights?

The 12-6 elbows are nothing but straight downward elbow strikes. These strikes were previously considered illegal and relied solely on the discretion of the referees. As time passed, the definition of the 12-6 elbows got fuzzier and people began questioning why it wasn’t allowed. A few professionals like the late John McCain believed that these strikes made MMA look like street fights. Even Daniel Cormier has claimed that he never liked 12-6 elbows. 

Taking to his ‘Funky and the Champ’ show beside Ben Askren, DC said, “I don’t like that. I don’t like 12-6 elbows… I just don’t want anything that makes fighting look like a street fight. That’s it… I think the moment we start opening those rules again, then it’s going to be more and more and more, and ultimately we’ll get back to soccer kicks.” And soccer kicks are the strikes that DC hates even more. 

However, many others have shown nothing but enthusiasm regarding the legalization of the strike. Of course, Jon Jones was one of the first ones to respond to the change. The only loss that he has on his professional MMA record came via disqualification. And the main culprit was a 12-6 elbow. With the ban lifted, he urged Dana White to rule out the defeat as a no-contest and clean his record of any defeats. 

The heavyweight champion took to Instagram and shared a picture from 2009. In the captions, he wrote, “Undefeated then, undefeated now.. @danawhite we gotta get that loss out of the history books.” This extracted a reaction from his former opponent, Matt Hamill, who asked the UFC CEO for a rematch against the former light heavyweight champion.

Needless to say, the UFC head honcho had also expressed his disapproval of the ban. Ever since his current heavyweight champion lost that bout, he had been trying to lift the ban on 12-6 elbows. Now that the strike has been legalized, the MMA community will surely witness many instances where the referees won’t be able to interfere in the fights because they thought that an elbow strike went straight down. It would also provide the fighters with a bit more freedom and more weapons to carry in their arsenal.

Is this really going to lead to more KOs in the upcoming bouts? The elbows are indeed dangerous weapons that can cut open a fighter in no time. This can lead to TKO via doctor’s stoppage, but knock someone out cold? No, not 12-6 elbows. As Joe Rogan enthusiastically demonstrated in that one video (yes, most of you might have seen it), the normal horizontal elbow strikes, whether standing or from the mount, generate a lot more power than 12-6 elbows. The 12-6 simply cause more damage. Remember Matt Brown’s KO of Diego Sanchez?

But what about the second change? How would the new definition of a grounded opponent affect a fight?

The new definition of grounded opponent will make the fights more challenging

As per the new definition, a fighter shall be considered grounded if any part of his/her body is in contact with the canvas except their hands or feet. This means that the fighters won’t get kneed or kicked to the head when their torso or head is in contact with the ground. But how will this affect the fights? 

Well, mixed martial artists won’t get to stop an incoming knee or kick to the head just by putting one of their hands on the canvas. They would now have to put their elbows and/or knees down to achieve that goal. This would certainly make it challenging for them as they’d have to defend themselves at all times. After all, the fighters have exploited this rule for years.

At UFC 297 in January 2024, Arnold Allen was penalized for a knee strike to the head of Movsar Evloev. The reason? Evloev had one hand on the mat. So, it’s safe to say that this rule change will allow fighters to follow their instincts a lot more while defending takedown attempts.

Chad Anheliger, the UFC bantamweight prospect who will face Cody Gibson at UFC Fight Night 246 revealed his thoughts about the change in the unified rules, right before his fight. ‘The Monster’ said, “I think it’s fair to say that it will take time for it to really start to trickle into the fights. The rules may change for that Fight Night but training camps [and] everything, it just takes lots of time to build stuff into your game. If it’s different than what we’ve been doing for, myself anyway, 15-plus years.”

Needless to say, the Octagon would be pretty quick to adapt to the said changes. However, the training camps would require a lot more time to adjust to the changes. But the freedom that comes with the new rules would definitely make the fights more entertaining, both for the audience and the contenders. 

What are your thoughts on the new rules for UFC? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.