There is no longer a ban on the 12-6 elbow in the UFC.
The one move that cost Jon Jones his undefeated UFC record is now legal in Dana White’s promotion.
Jones became the UFC heavyweight champion in March 2023Getty
It will make its debut on UFC Fight Night 246, which takes place in Edmonton, Canada on Sunday.
Jones challenged Matt Hamill in the The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale in December 2009, but was disqualified in the first round for hitting his opponent with a then-illegal 12-6 elbow.
A 12-6 elbow is an MMA strike where a fighter lifts their elbow as high as possible from a 12 o’clock position and drives it straight down into six o’clock with maximum force.
It was originally put in place to protect fighters from taking those types of shots to the back of the head or spine, but in modern MMA there are now separate rules in place for that.
The rule was enforced by whomever was refereeing a bout during the UFC’s early years. Therefore, a final decision was always subjective in terms of the trajectory of the downward elbow.
At the time of Jones’ fight with Hamill, the move was banned, which subsequently led to Jones receiving an early DQ and a loss on his record that has followed the current UFC heavyweight champion to date.
Jones, though, then embarked on a 19-fight win streak, which culminated in a first-round submission victory over Ciryl Gane in March 2023.
The only exception came in his 2017 rematch with Daniel Cormier, after a failed drug test from Jones caused the bout to be ruled a no contest, even though he had knocked ‘DC’ out.
Jones won the UFC’s light heavyweight belt for the first time in 2011 and has since defended it on 14 occasions.
At just 23 years and eight months old, Jones remains the youngest-ever UFC champion to this day.
Bones sliced through Mauricio Rua at UFC 128 to become the youngest champion in UFC historyGetty
After a three-year hiatus, Jones returned to face Gane at UFC 285 and submitted him with a guillotine after two minutes and four seconds to claim heavyweight gold for the first time.
‘Bones’ defends his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on November 16 in what could be both men’s final octagon appearance.
The banning of the 12-6 elbow may lead to a variety of new defences from fighters when defending takedowns, and we can expect to see this for the first time on Sunday.
UFC Edmonton will be the first event in the promotion’s history where fighters are legally allowed to use the 12-6 elbow.
It will also the introduction of another MMA rule that will provide provide a new definition of a ‘grounded’ opponent.
In previous UFC events, fighters were not allowed to throw knees to an opponent who was ‘downed’, meaning they had one hand on the mat.
This usually led to the ‘downed’ fighter stalling their opponent’s attack by touching the mat with their hands to stop knees.
Jones is arguably the greatest-ever UFC starGetty
But this has been changed with an opponent now being classified as ‘downed’ only when any part of a fighters body besides their hands or feet are touching the mat.
No.2 ranked flyweight Brandon Moreno headlines UFC Edmonton against No.3 ranked Amir Albazi.
Alexandre Pantoja is the current UFC flyweight champion with Brandon Royval, who beat Japan’s Tatsuro Taira in October, the No.1 ranked in the division.
Meanwhile, Erin Blanchfield takes on former champ Rose Namajunas in the women’s flyweight division and Derrick Lewis faces Jhonata Diniz in a heavyweight bout.
Wales’ Jack Shore also features in the prelims as he takes on Youssef Zalal in the featherweight division.
