[Rich_Davie]

Sorry guys for the long quote, but I only included the parts related to elbow strikes.

From mmaweekly.com :

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...1588&zoneid=13

'BIG' JOHN MCCARTHY EXPLAINS MMA RULES


‘Big’ John recently explained several MMA rules and how they came to be to MMAWeekly Radio including: fence grabbing, the use of elbows, and knees to a downed opponent. McCarthy also addressed why some fights are stopped while others are allowed to continue, and the subject of fining fighters. The interview can be heard in its entirety by clicking on the radio archive.

...One of the most misunderstood and talked about rules in MMA centers around the use of elbows, specifically the point of the elbow. McCarthy explained, “Everyone thinks downward point of elbow strikes are not allowed, so you cannot hit with the point of the elbow. That’s not true. That’s not what it was for. That’s not what it meant. A fighter can strike with any part of his arm in the Unified Rules. It doesn’t matter if it’s the point of the elbow. It’s one type of elbow is not allowed. That is your hand going up to twelve o’clock and bringing it down to six o’clock, in that type of position. If I were fighting Frank Trigg and he went to take me down, and he does a double leg and pushes me up against the fence and I take my hand from the sky and bring it down onto the middle of his back, that is what is an illegal elbow. That’s it. Any elbow that’s got any kind of arch to it, any other kind of elbow, they’re all good.”

McCarthy went on to explain why that particular elbow strike is disallowed. He said, “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. 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. 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. 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 that hand coming up to twelve o’clock to six o’clock.”

Advocates against the use of elbows in the UFC would like to see them banned citing elbows cause cuts and cuts stop fights. Anytime David Loiseau of Kenny Florian competes, the great elbow debate reappears. ‘Big’ John was asked if elbows should be allowed. He answered, “You’re going to have guys going both ways. You’re going to have guys saying it causes cuts which causes a stop to the fight which is not the way you want a fight to stop, and so lets get rid of it. You have people saying, you know what? Why are you taking things away from what was this open forum of fighting, and now you’re going to continue to take all of these different types of techniques away? How many fights truly stop because of a cut from an elbow? They did a study on it and it was somewhere around 8 or 9% of all fights have ever done it. That was within the last two years or something. That’s some, but is that some 50% thing, or anything like that you’re looking at? It’s not. It’s a good technique. David Loiseau, when he throws an elbow, I kid him all the time about him sharpening his elbow. Is that really why he ends up cutting people? No. It’s the damn velocity and power that he throws it with. It’s not that he is hitting them with the tip of his elbow all the time. It’s how much power he’s hitting them with, and it’s hitting just maybe just below the elbow or on a boney structure. It causes a cut. There’s pressure. The pressure splits the skin, and it happens. It could happen the same from a punch. It could happen the same from a kick. It happens from knees. Are you going to sit there and say, you know what? A knee caused a cut, now we’re going to start looking at that. You’ve got to be realistic about what is truly happening in that fight and what’s going on with it. You start taking things away, you just keep on watering things down in my opinion. I wouldn’t take things away.”