Standing elbows only?

[Tom Gaughan]

There is a sherdog thread discussing whether the UFC should ban ground n pound elbows.
On one hand you have fights like last night where a superficial cut impaired Joe to the point that BJ could finish him. He may have finished him anyhow but we'll never know. Should this be a way to swing the fight?

Maybe.

This is part of fighting though.

Carlos, Iman, Taylor, Michael B, aspiring fighters and avid fans lemme know what you think.
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[Iman Achhal]

He did get cut, but I think BJ was going to win anyway. BJ looked great and if I remember correctly he dropped Joe with the first punch in round 1. Its a fight. You're going to get cut, you'll bleed, you may break some bones... this is the game. The fighters know the rules and take the risks!
If we take ground and pound elbows out, then what's next? The more "holds" that are "barred", the further this sport gets away from a real fight. The tagline "as real as it gets" will mean less and less as we limit what fighters are able to do.

[Nisar Loynab]

I think elbows are awsome they should never be banned.

[Ben Nall]

I think its a valid point of discussion, but IMHO there is a big difference between using the elbow to cut someone (and that cut getting them dq'd) and someone landing a solid elbow strike.

The elbows are very durable and heavy duty weapons - possibly lethal if used with that intention. Martial artists break boards, bricks, cinder blocks and ice with their elbows - you can imagine what a similarly placed blow might due to someone's facial structure if they landed it properly, let alone how their brain would be bouncing around inside their head.

Anyone remember when Patrick Smith defeated Scott Morris in UFC 2? He beat him in something like 30 seconds and hit him with about 6 or more solid elbow strikes from the mount. Thats his bloody face on the poster in the Alexandria school. Smith wasn't trying to cut Morris, he was trying to smash him and you can see how smashed his face was.

I think the issue is that strategists have seen that the cuts are easier to land than a solid blow, and require less effort, and pay off more in the long run (when the other fighter gets DQ'd). These days when you see them throwing elbows, they are trying to cut, not to smash.

In a real fight, a cut isn't going to stop the other guy, but it might slow him down and blind him, so I guess its fair game... can you really say one is better or worse than the other?
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