# Anderson Silva broke the rules???



## Odin (Feb 6, 2007)

Having watched the Anderson Silva fight again i was wondering what everyone thought about the elbows Silva delivered to win his recent fight against Travis...the rules state that you can not deliver downard elbows yet them elbows that were used to tap out Travis looked very much like downward ones to me....even Randy couldnt explain the rule, apparently the elbows were at an angle so couldnt be classed as downward so were classed as acceptable yet they still followed a downward motion, so what is the rules on elbows...does the ref have to pull out a protractor in the middle of the fight to work out what angle the elbows coming from???

bit of a grey area i'm thinking.


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## zDom (Feb 6, 2007)

Pretty sure the choke was working anyway. The elbows just made him tap out a bit sooner.


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## matt.m (Feb 6, 2007)

I think it is an angular issue.  Consider the difference.  You cannot kick to the face, however you can kick to the head.

The face is the front, the head being the area protected by padding.


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## Odin (Feb 6, 2007)

zDom said:


> Pretty sure the choke was working anyway. The elbows just made him tap out a bit sooner.


 
see i dont know about that! lutter is better on the ground also he had that triangle on for a long time with no avail, im pretty sure them skinny legs of his would be on the way out......im not saying by any means that lutter would have won though...it was just a matter of time, but i do think that the UFC needs to clear up some of the rules issues.


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## Odin (Feb 6, 2007)

matt.m said:


> I think it is an angular issue. Consider the difference. You cannot kick to the face, however you can kick to the head.
> 
> The face is the front, the head being the area protected by padding.


 
I yeah what your saying, the face is more fleshy then the head so theres more of a difference there i know what your saying to say though.

but again the direction of the elbow is downwards and the strikes land on the top of lutters head.....to me thats a bit dodgy...dman if i knew you were allowed to throw downwards elbows from a triangle i would have done it before!!!!


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## DavidCC (Feb 6, 2007)

maybe they should define the rule so that it describes teh angel relative to the HEAD not relative to the floor... so that "downward" then becomes "perpendicular to the top of the head".


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## Gufbal1982 (Feb 6, 2007)

the cuts on Lutter's head are near the temple...


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## Raiderbeast (Feb 6, 2007)

The slow motion shows the elbows coming down at an angle hitting Lutter on the side near his temple.  The refs are good at seeing what's going on, he would have said something to Silva.


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## FearlessFreep (Feb 6, 2007)

Chalk it up to Ref's discretion or interpretation of what he saw at the moment and move on...


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## Andrew Green (Feb 6, 2007)

It's a funny rule that has come up before, and as odd I believe the elbows where not at all downward, they where pretty much parallel to the floor, not perpendicular.  Downward meaning toward the floor.

I believe that is what Randy was trying to get at, and no, it doesn't make sense.


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## crushing (Feb 7, 2007)

Andrew Green said:


> It's a funny rule that has come up before, and as odd I believe the elbows where not at all downward, they where pretty much parallel to the floor, not perpendicular. Downward meaning toward the floor.
> 
> I believe that is what Randy was trying to get at, and no, it doesn't make sense.


 
I haven't seen this fight to comment on those specific blows, but my intrepretation of downward would be relative to the body of the person throwing the strike, not to the floor.  If that motion is so nasty to require a rule while in the upright position, how is it any less nasty while in a side-mount to the side of the head, or full mount to the clavicle?

WWOBD?


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## Andrew Green (Feb 7, 2007)

Who knows, it is one of there odder rules.  COuld even be appearance based for all I know, don't want to get someone pinned, head to the floor, and start dropping the point of the eblow on there face, giant oversized ice block breaking style.  Might look a little nasty for tv.


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