Elbow Inconsistency

The UFC's rules prohibit downward strikes with the point of the elbow, but apparently that only applies to strikes that are downward with respect to the floor and ceiling, not to the strikers body.

This is just silly. If those strikes are dangerous, it's because you're using the point of the elbow and have a lot of leverage striking downward, not because the trajectory is actually downward. These strikes have been used very effectively by Hughes from the sidemount, and by Anderson Silva when he had Travis Lutter in the triangle choke.

Now, I'm glad the strikes are available - I think knees on the ground should be available to, but it just seems odd to prohibit them only in when oriented a certain way.