The Florida State Boxing Commission did something awesome yesterday, and in essence presented an early Christmas gift to the amateur mixed martial arts community, which in turn will benefit the professional mixed martial artists that are bred here in the sunshine state.
Yesterday at a commission meeting the members voted unanimously to allow elbow strikes in amateur mixed martial arts fights. Something that should have happened long ago.
Amateur mixed martial artists in Florida that intend on becoming professionals have been served an injustice over the years because elbow strikes were not allowed in their bouts. When they moved to the professional ranks, it’s almost like starting all over again for them as far as training and working in a fight is concerned.
If you’re going to be a professional in any sport then training for it while you’re an amateur and working on your technique you should be allowed to do whatever the pros do. How are you going to transition to the professional ranks as an amateur with no experience in some of the most useful strikes allowed in the sport both offensively and defensively?
For Florida promotions that do a lot of the shows in the amateur arena like XFN, and Island Fights this new rule is going to benefit all of their shows and the athletes that participate in them in my opinion.
Today was a win for the athlete and mixed martial arts overall in the state of Florida. Our state is a hotbed of great mixed martial arts training centers and promotions and all those involved deserve to have the ability to practice their craft unhindered, and now they can.
There, of course, is some paperwork and administrative things that have to be handled before this rule officially goes into effect. However, at the end of the meeting and after the vote there was no indication saying that promoters and/or amateur mixed martial arts sanctioning bodies can not implement this rule starting today. I’m assuming that now that the rule is approved we will see some promotions implement the rule immediately.
From my understanding, the way it will work is after 3 amateur mixed martial arts fights a fighter will then have the option to start using elbow strikes in their 4th fight. They will be allowed to if their opponent agrees, and they will also have the option of using elbow pads or not, and also can say no to elbows, (which would be silly in my opinion) but they have the right to choose for themselves. Both fighters have to agree, or elbow strikes will not be used in their fight.
Christopher James has been in the MMA industry for 15 years, Working as a ring announcer for promotions like the XFC, Island Fights, Combat Night and Fight Nights Global during his career. Chris’ love for the sport and the athletes that partake in it led him to writing and doing face to face interviews with the athletes he admired and respected. Chris isn’t conventional by any stretch of the imagination, he has his own style, and takes pride in not being a “cookie-cutter” member of the media. Unique and sometimes controversial takes are what he brings to the table, forcing folks to think a little differently about the world of MMA. He also has a love for music as he has been a dj for 25 years and his love for music gets brought to the MMA world when he gets his guests to sing on his weekly show Cage Side with Christopher James which can be seen Wednesday nights on FACEBOOK LIVE, and soon via podcast.