JRE MMA Show #185 with Ethyn Ewing · Aired Sep 2, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
The 12-to-6 downward elbow strike was outlawed in MMA because athletic commissions mistakenly believed it to be the most lethal strike after watching brick-breaking demonstrations.
The finding
What the evidence shows
The brick-breaking origin story for the 12-6 elbow ban is a popular tale that has been repeated for years, but a former Nevada athletic commission director has called it revisionist history. The documented reason the strike was banned when the Unified Rules were written in 2000 was that doctors saw a downward elbow used on a fighter and worried about orbital bone and spinal injury, not a karate demonstration breaking bricks.
Read the supporting source · en.wikipedia.org ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that the 12-to-6 downward elbow strike was outlawed in MMA because athletic commissions mistakenly believed it to be the most lethal strike after watching brick-breaking demonstrations?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. The brick-breaking origin story for the 12-6 elbow ban is a popular tale that has been repeated for years, but a former Nevada athletic commission director has called it revisionist history. Joe Rogan said it (matched by voice) on JRE MMA Show #185 with Ethyn Ewing, aired Sep 2, 2026, at 2:10:45. The supporting source is en.wikipedia.org, linked below.
The context belongs here.
No separately verified on-air correction is recorded for this check. That is not a claim that nobody corrected it.
- Attribution
- Not independently confirmed in this record
- Editorial context review
- Not recorded; generated finding
- Coverage
- One selected claim from the episode
Revisions to this check
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