‘It’s a bit of a cowardly move, if you ask me’ – Michael Bisping glad that the UFC doesn’t allow knees to a grounded opponent
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Demetrious Johnson was knocked out for the first time in his career at the recently concluded ONE on TNT 1. He lost to Adriano Moraes via. a vicious knee, while he was grounded – a move which is deemed illegal and leads to DQ in the UFC. It was exactly similar to the one which got Petr Yan (Yan lost his title as well) disqualified against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259.
This received a mixed response from critics and fighters in the MMA community, and UFC Hall of Famer Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping seems to be glad that the UFC doesn’t allow knees to a grounded opponent. He also went on to say that allowing it might lead to serious injury to the opponents.
‘We’ve never seen a tragic accident or injury in the UFC’ – Michael Bisping
Bisping was quoted as saying, “It’s a tricky one, because I’m not for a guy being on his knees and kneeing him square in the head if you’re standing up because you can generate so much power. So much power like that, and you can really hurt someone. We’ve been very lucky: We’ve never seen a tragic accident or injury in the UFC.” [via MMA Junkie]
He went on, saying, “But we don’t want to do things that might encourage that one day. All this hard work the UFC’s done, and the media, in making this sport as widely accepted as it is, all it needs is one death, and God forbid, things change. So I’m not for that. But it is a tricky one.” [via MMA Junkie]
He finally said, “I hate seeing people play this game of putting their hand down – it’s a bit of a cowardly move, if you ask me. I don’t know, because they always talk about, ‘Was it intentional, or was it not intentional?’ Well, they’re always intentional. You didn’t accidentally knee him. But they didn’t necessarily know that he was technically down. But yes, of course your brain sends the message to throw the knee, and you throw it to the face.” [via MMA Junkie]
Demetrious Johnson didn’t seem much bothered about the grounded knee strike, as he congratulated his opponent Moraes in a classy move. Just a month earlier, Johnson had a verbal disagreement with Aljamain Sterling over the same.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the rules should be as it is, in the UFC, as Bisping wants it to be? Or should the UFC allow such strikes, just like ONE championship allows?
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Gerard Crispin
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