So, during UFC 79's Tony DeSouza vs Roan Jucao Carneiro fight, Carneiro was throwing a downward pointed elbow strikes from the bottom of guard at Tony DeSouza's head.  He wasn't using them as viciously as Jared Rollins used them on Jon WarMachine Koopenhaver during Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale, but it brought up a quick discussion regarding downward elbows with the tip of the elbow.

Joe Rogan and Goldberg were discussing the fact a lot of people were wondering why downward elbows were ok to throw from the bottom, from the guard for example, but not from any of top positions. Rogan said that he spoke about this to "Big" John McCarthy, the UFC ref till he recently retired. According to McCarthy when the state athletic commissions were reviewing various strikes during making of the rules for MMA, they, specifically banned them due to strong impressions from Karate and other Traditional Martial Arts (TMAs) "effectiveness" of downward elbows for brick and board breaking. Just like most of us, the state athletic commissions thought that if that's what martial artists could do to a bunch of bricks, what kinds of terribly injuries could happen to a fighter getting with with one from the top.  Damn brick and board breakin! How devastating! To think how many millions of people are deceived and misdirected by TMAs still in this day and age. But that's a topic for another post.

I don't have a problem with downward elbows to the body, front and back, and think they should definitely be allowed. Downward elbows from a top position directed toward the face I'm not ok with. A high profile heavyweight championship fight from UFC 39: The Warriors Return Randy Couture vs Ricco Rodriguez. I'm not going to review that great fight right now, but at one point Rodriguez was on top of Randy Couture and threw a downward elbow towards Randy's face. The tip of Rogriquez's elbow landed right on the EYE...Randy asked for the fight to be stopped immediately after. It looked and sounded nasty. It could have ended Randy's fight career right there, can you imagine that? We all, as MMA fans would have missed out on some of the greatest fights to date! So downward elbow strikes should be allowed to the body, but not to the face or the back of the head, in my humble opinion. Oh, by the way, bring back the knees to downed opponent, but that's for another post.

What's your take on downward elbows from the top?