Jon Jones used his incredible greco-roman skills to get Matt Hamill on his back and followed with a vicious barrage of ground and pound to stop the fight in the first round. Unfortunately Referee Steve Mazzagatti declared a disqualification for an illegal 12 to 6 elbow strike. Jones threw an elbow straight down into Hamill’s face and the ref stopped the action to deduct a point but since Hamill was unable to continue and the fight was ruled a disqualification.
A collision of two highly skilled wrestlers, this was the fight that had the hardcore MMA fans the most pumped. Jones came out using a very unusual striking stance that capitalized on his very long reach. Hamill came out firing jabs and a spinning strike of his own. Hamill shot in for a single leg around the three minute mark but Jones evaded the take down attempt. Then Jones dropped Hamill with a beautiful trip around 2:30 and quickly took mounted position. Jones rained down elbows and punches from the top position.
Announcer Joe Rogan pointed out the ridiculous reasoning behind the downward elbow strike being banned when the unified rules of mma were adopted — a member of the original athletic commission had seen a demonstration of a martial artist breaking an ice block with a downward elbow and insisted on banning the move. Once again the poorly thought out rules set adopted from boxing has come back to bite MMA fans and fighters.
[UPDATE] via MMAJunkie:
Nevada State Athletic Director Keith Kizer just informed MMAjunkie.com that the disqualification result was the first-ever use of instant replay in the commission’s history. After halting the bout, Mazzagatti asked for the replay to determine whether the illegal blows contributed to the ending of the fight. When replays showed that the elbows scored directly to the eye, the disqualification result was issued. Because the illegal blows landed as part of the sequence that ended the fight, the ruling was made.
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