In April of this year, shortly before the UFC 300 anniversary tournament, the promotion announced the appearance of new gloves. The colorful presentation actively praised the updated ammunition, which, in theory, should have reduced the number of hits to the eyes.
First of all, the changes affected the cut of the gloves. The closure has become even tighter to the wrist, which allows the fighter’s hand to be protected and prevents the opponent from grabbing the glove, which is often used on the ground. In addition, the absence of points was striking, which should reduce the number of cuts. The hitting surface has also changed. The material has become softer and the padding has been distributed over the entire back of the hand, and the model is designed to make it easier for fighters to keep their hand in a natural position, and this is precisely aimed at solving the problem. of punctures in the eyes.
New UFC gloves
Photo: UFC
The color scheme has also changed. They decided to keep title fighters in gold gloves, regular fights in black gloves, fights on Dana White’s Contender Series in blue, and fights on the Road to UFC in red. And fans were able to see the new gloves in action at UFC 302, where Russia’s Islam Makhachev defended the title. As usual, Dana White unveiled the new design with pomp: “We collaborated with the best designers, engineers and athletes in the world. This event will be a turning point for MMA.”
It is true that even before the official debut, fighters criticized the innovations. Former promotion champion Sean Strickland was the harshest: “These gloves suck. I want to talk to the person who made the design. Have you ever been in a fight in your fucking life? How could you think this was a good idea? These gloves are really terrible. UFC, you really screwed up this time.”
Islam Makhachev explained the difference with the old model: “They are very tough, as I said. I think they will cut harder. Because the latest UFC gloves were soft. These are tougher.”
The new gloves didn’t stop Makhachev from finishing off Poirier:
“This is one of my favorite moves.” Let’s see how Makhachev strangled Poirier.
And Randy Brown appreciated the new content, but noted that gloves will not prevent his eyes from being poked, because this will never happen. The Jamaican is sure that the problem here is not in the design, but in the fact that fighters do not close their palms if they are not attacking, but take blows with an open hand. In addition, standing with clenched fists creates additional stress on the entire body.
The first tournament with new gloves increased the anxiety: three fights were stopped on the preliminary card alone due to eye pokes. That is, the main task was not completed. A side effect was the complete disappearance of knockouts. At UFC 302 there were only three finishes throughout the entire tournament, all by submission. The next event also had a lot of decisions. A total of 18 fights passed without knockouts before Carlos Prates finished Charlie Radtke with a knee to the body. Well, I had to wait two more fights for a knockout with a punch.
In total, 48 fights have already been held with the new gloves, only seven of which ended in knockout. During the same time, there were slightly fewer eye pokes. And only at the last tournament in Saudi Arabia did the fans breathe a sigh of relief, because on the main card Shara Bullet, Volkan Oezdemir and Robert Whittaker reassured the fans: knockouts are here to stay.
Robert Whittaker
Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
However, this does not save the new gloves from criticism. Before UFC 303, former promotion champion Andrei Orlovsky spoke about the innovations: “Yes, it’s complete bullshit. They sent them to me, I practiced with them, nothing at all. The quality is as if, you know, Vietnamese sandals were sold on the Soviet market, but their quality was not very good. The same impression with the gloves is that they just saved money.”
So far, the UFC has not been able to convince others that the new gloves are a salvation. On the contrary, it feels like the promotion was too clever and made the situation worse. The gloves received too much critical feedback just a month after their introduction. Perhaps in the future the UFC will find a way to perfect the new product and stop surprising fighters, but for now there are many doubts about that.
