mano a mano combat

If Jordan Mein’s brutal finish of Evangelista “The Other Cyborg” Santos this past weekend showed us anything, it’s that the elbow strike is easily one of the most underutilized, not to mention plain deadly, tools in the MMA game. Now I know, I know, there are a couple people out there who will say that the lesson has already been taught, but the fact remains that until we witnessed it, many of us had all but ruled out the elbow as a means to finish a fight on the feet. Well, except for one really, really epic way, which I’m not sure counts. So with that in mind, let us take a look at some of the finer instances of the elbow in combat sports.

Jongsanan Fairtex v. Sakmongkol

Props to Geezer for the find, which features former Muay Thai phenom Anucha Chaiyasen a.k.a “Jongsanan Fairtex” and fellow fighter Sakmongkol. And before you go thinking “Jongsanan Fairtex” is some kind of “Kimbo Slice” style alternate persona, it is actually part of a tradition in Thailand to take the name of your camp. The match, which became known as “the elbow match”, was actually the fifth out of eight times that these two had met in the ring, and was nominated for fight of the decade. The devastating power of the elbow strike was first showcased in Muay Thai, its sharpness equated to that of a razor, and this match is perhaps one of the best examples of its effectiveness.

// I remember seeing clips of MMA in it’s early stages; two people just beating each other into piles of blood. I remember when I told my mother I was going to fight and of course she was afraid I was going to get really hurt. After it was all said and done, the only [...]

// One of my favorite ways to cause damage involves the art of striking. My hobbies include walking into bars and punching every person I see and knocking them out. Okay, okay just kidding. As any mixed martial artist knows striking plays a very important role in causing damage. What options do you have when [...]