After watching the UFC card last night, I was left in shock at how it is OK to be sprawled on top of your opponent and sledge hammer elbows down from above. Yet if a hand touches the canvas a knee can not be thrown.. It would not suprise me if Koch does not fight again after having the point of Lamas's elbow thrown down onto/into his eye socket on many occasions unprotected. There maybe less deaths and brain trauma in MMA ( obviously because you can submit people as well ) but there is a higher risk of permenant damage.
I'm just saying Koch will be fine. I'm in favor of pretty much everything. Knees to a grounded opponent, elbows, upkicks to a grounded opponent from the bottom. I can do without head stomps and kicks to the head of a grounded opponent from a standing position, but that's about it.
The one hand down rule should go. It seems to be getting more common for people to play it. I can't remember who was fighting, but they saw a knee coming in and instead of blocking it, they put their hand down, the knee connected (but didn't do any real damage), and the guy looked up at the ref (iirc, it was Herb Dean). Herb just said, "you play the game, that's what happens" Or when Jon Jones came out on all fours against Vitor, and Vitor went straight for a head kick. He looked over at the ref and the ref just shrugged his shoulders and told him to keep fighting. I'm fine with knees to the head of a grounded opponent, from any position. And kicks to the head of a grounded opponent, provided your not on your feet (think up kicks).
Yeah Kock looked like he had lost his eye, but I guess that was just the way he was lying there, all the blood ran into his eye socket and pooled there. I don't like fighters putting their hands on the canvas to avoid a knee. I think it should be that if your knee (both knees?) or ass is on the canvas, you can't be kneed in the head. I would also outlaw elbows to the head of a grounded opponent. Too many massive cuts. Also I would outlaw push kicks to the knees of an opponent. That **** is just plain cheap. :bart :hat
Well, that is the best way to quickly get the sport off TV, banned again in multiple states and countries where it is now legal, and reduced back to an irrelevant fringe activity with zero positive media coverage. :good :hat
With "CTE" and "concussions" being all the rage now I fully expect to see either the elimination of elbow strikes to the head from the guard and/or mount positions or knee strikes to the head from the Thai clinch. If not that then I fully expect to see the introduction of soft knee and/or elbow pads to reduce the severity of both the knee and elbow strikes landed to the head of an opponent in the near future.
Koch got his ass handed to him... If you don't like **** don't play in the **** tank! All I have to say about that.
Elbow pads don't diminish any of the brutal effective power generated from an elbow, all they do is slightly lower the odds of cuts as well as keep prudish officials in worldwide athletic commissions happy. We don't even use elbow or knee pads in amateur MT so introducing them in the UFC would make it an international laughing stock and it just wouldn't suit their very macho driven image.