Daniel Cormier is towards the latest rule change to legalize 12-to-6 elbows in MMA.
However not for the explanations you’d assume.
“I don’t like that. I don’t like 12-to-6 elbows and I don’t like soccer kicks. I don’t wish to see soccer kicks,” Cormier stated this previous week on his YouTube channel.
“So right here’s my thought, as a result of there’s slightly little bit of a distinction, proper? So once I was combating [Anthony] ‘Rumble’ Johnson, you’ll be able to’t [throw a 12-to-6 elbow], but when you perform a little little bit of an arch, it’s OK. Angle and arch. So I used to be in a position to reduce ‘Rumble’ with an arching elbow, however it actually did come straight down. It was little or no by way of not being straight up and down. I simply don’t need something that makes combating appear like a avenue struggle. That’s it.”
In July, the Affiliation of Boxing Commissions voted to take away the 12-to-6 elbow as a foul as certainly one of two key rule adjustments for the unified guidelines of MMA. The opposite rule change altered the definition of a “downed fighter” to open up extra offensive alternatives in scrambling and wrestling transitions. These adjustments are due to enter impact on November 1.
Essentially the most notorious incident of a 12-to-6 elbow occurred in Jon Jones’ controversial 2009 loss to Matt Hamill. Jones, a fierce rival of Cormier’s throughout Cormier’s UFC profession, was disqualified for hitting Hamill with a downward elbow in a struggle he was in any other case dominating. Fifteen years later, that struggle nonetheless stands as the one loss on Jones’ professional MMA file. UFC CEO Dana White and Jones have each spoken brazenly through the years about desirous to get the loss reversed, and did so once more after the rule change was finalized.
Contemplating their rivalry, which included two heated UFC championship bouts from 2015-17, it’d be solely pure to imagine Cormier dislikes the choice to legalize 12-to-6 elbows due to Jones’ historical past with the no-longer-banned method. However Cormier says that’s not the case. As a substitute, he says, it has to do with the slippery slope the choice might kick off.
“John McCain, earlier than he handed, was towards combating [MMA] as a result of he stated it’s human cockfighting,” Cormier stated of the once-critical U.S. Senator who reversed course on MMA later in life. “However then they might present these movies of like gang fights, and folks operating round and folks on the bottom and they’d simply kick them within the face. You understand how that occurs. If we get to soccer kicks, it begins to appear like that once more, and that’s not good.
“The whole lot type of seems to be clear [without 12-to-6 elbows]. I’m telling you, bro, these are my causes. I don’t just like the [12-to-6 elbow rule change]. I imply, 12-to-6 elbow, I don’t really feel as strongly about — I don’t care as a lot about 12-to-6 elbows, however I believe the second we begin opening these guidelines once more, then it’s going to be an increasing number of and extra, after which finally we’ll get again to soccer kicks. Since you do know that now, palms down, beginning in November, is just not grounded anymore. … Once more, that’s one transfer again towards that, then there might be one thing else strikes nearer to that. That’s simply my greatest fear.”