Daniel Cormier might be the only person in mixed martial arts (MMA) who likes the 12-6 elbow rule.
It was revealed last month (July 23, 2024) that the longstanding controversial and questionable 12-6 elbow rule will be abolished on Nov. 1, 2024. Essentially everyone in the MMA community breathed a collective sigh of relief when hearing the news, especially Jon Jones. However, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champion, Cormier, disagrees with the change and wants the strike to stay illegal.
“I don’t like that,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Junkie). “I don’t like 12-to-6 elbows, and I don’t like soccer kicks. I do not want to see soccer kicks. … Here’s my thought: When I was fighting [Anthony] ‘Rumble’ Johnson, you couldn’t [throw an elbow straight down], but if you do a little bit of an arch, it’s okay. So, I was able to cut ‘Rumble’ with an arching elbow, but it really did come straight down. It was very little in terms of not being straight up and down.
“I just don’t want anything that makes fighting look like a street fight,” he continued. “That’s it. John McCain, before he passed, was against fighting because he said, ‘It’s human cockfighting.’ Then they would show these videos of gang fights, people running around, and people on the ground, and they would kick them in the face. If we get to soccer kicks, it starts to look like that again, and that’s not good. I don’t care as much about 12-6 elbows, but I think the moment we start opening those rules again, then it’s going to be more and more and more, and ultimately we’ll get back to soccer kicks.”
Sorry to break it to you, “D.C.,” stomps and soccer kicks haven’t been a problem for RIZIN Fighting Federation nor were they for PRIDE Fighting Championship.
Cormier, 45, has comfortably into his position as a commentator and podcast personality since retiring in 2020. Perhaps his opinion would be different if the news came while he was still an active fighter. At the same time, elbows of any kind were never too complimentary to his wrestling-heavy fight style.
Ultimately, it’s safe to assume his rival, Jones, who infamously has his only MMA loss via disqualification by 12-6 elbows, will view this as just another dig.