UFC Edmonton fighter weighs in on potential impact of historic rule change for 12-6 elbows and grounded opponent

UFC Edmonton will make history as it will be the first UFC card to allow twelve to six elbows with a re-defined idea of what constitutes a grounded opponent. This is something that fans and fighters alike are understandably discussing, and that certainly includes fighters on that Nov. 2 card.

UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs. Albazi features many Canadian combatants, and Western Canada's Chad Anheliger offered his viewpoint on the altered ruleset.

Speaking on MMA Canada, Anheliger delved into the allowance of twelve to six elbows and the differences in what a grounded opponent actually is. When analyzing this topic related to UFC Edmonton, Chad Anheliger said,

"I think it's fair to say that it will take time for it to really start to trickle into the fights. The rules may change for that Fight Night but training camps [and] everything, it just takes lots of time to build stuff into your game. If it's different than what we've been doing for, myself anyway, 15-plus years.

"I'm not just all of a sudden going to completely add a new technique. It's nice to be a little freer in there and not have to think as much. The only thing that we're paying attention to for my camp is just knowing when a downed opponent is and when they aren't. Things are a little bit different for that. I think that's the only thing that has a bit of effect."

Check out Anheliger's thoughts on the new unified rules of MMA entering the fold at UFC Edmonton [18:54] below:

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UFC Edmonton and Chad Anheliger's ruleset thoughts continued

With the evolving understanding of what a grounded opponent is, Anheliger described how there are some opportunities at UFC Edmonton to be comprehensively aware of.

When addressing the ability to use the 12 to 6 elbows, Anheliger said,

"I would agree with almost everybody. It's like, sure, if there's an opportunity to slam one in there, great. But we've been doing that already. They talked about the slight angle change makes it not 12-6, that was a way of kind of getting around that rule for years. So now that it's not a rule, it actually hasn't changed that much.

"So I don't think there's gonna be a big, massive difference for the elbows. We're already using them where they're effective, against the cage, et cetera... Hey, it's an opportunity. First card, new rules. Make some history, be the first person, get a 12-6 KO or get a KO when someone has both hands on the ground or whatever. So I'm always looking for opportunites."