The UFC has a vision problem. The new gloves didn’t get the point

Maybe you noticed it or maybe you didn’t, but there was something different about UFC 302. Right there on every fighter’s fist? These were the latest iteration of the UFC gloves.

It was a development that the UFC was excited about. The day before UFC 300 in April, UFC officials gave a full presentation of the new gloves to members of the media gathered for the official weigh-ins. We watched a video about the in-depth research and development process of the new gloves. We received a document highlighting all the exciting new innovations contained in these few ounces of protective material. We have to handle them and try them. (Naturally, the first thing I did was extend my fingers to see if it was possible to poke someone in the eye with these. Turns out yes, of course.)

Then at UFC 302 on Saturday, the new gloves finally made their UFC debut. Any hope that they would reduce the frequency of the glances seemed to be dashed in the very first fight of the night. By the end of the event, several fighters found themselves with their fingers in their eyes. One thing that didn’t happen, however, was a single KO or TKO finish.

Obviously, it’s way too early and the sample size is way too small to blame the latter statistic on the new gloves. At the post-fight press conference, several fighters said they expected the new gloves to benefit stand-up attackerswith UFC welterweight Randy Brown calling them a “puncher’s glove”.

“But that won’t do anything about the peeps,” Brown added. “It really won’t do anything at all for eye shots.”

And yes, it seems like eye hits were everyone’s main concern when it came to gloves. except the UFC. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this new glove presentation in April was that the scourge of accidental (or not) eye gouging was barely mentioned. Instead, designers seemed more concerned with fits and comfort, as well as protecting the hands while not changing the padding in a way that would significantly decrease or increase KO rates.

Not that these concerns aren’t important, of course…but what about people’s eyes? When I asked this question, the answer was that the designers hoped the increased hand flexibility would reduce eye pokes. The idea seemed to be that by making it easier for fighters to form a fist with the new gloves, fighters choose keeping hands closed more often, resulting in fewer eye pokes.

One thing about these new gloves, as reviewed by the first fighters to use them in the Octagon, is that they make fist formation easier. Some noted that they felt less grip and forearm fatigue as they struggled with the stiffness of the glove. Others said it also made it easier to grab opponents in wrestling scenarios.

Again, all the good stuff. But on the delicate subject of the eyes, we still hope that everything will work itself out? This is important not only because it is dangerous to the long-term health and career prospects of fighters to eye poke, but also because it appears to have the ability to radically alter the outcome of fights. UFC women’s bantamweight Lauren Murphy recently highlighted a statistic from a judging and refereeing class. who reported a study according to which the fighter who poked his eye in the first round of a fight won that fight 74% of the time.

This is a difficult problem to solve for several reasons. One could argue that referees need to be more aggressive in taking points from fighters who can’t keep their fingers to themselves, and that argument has merit. But then, if you skewer someone’s eye in the first round and it diminishes their vision enough to help you knock them out in the second, it’s still worth it.

For years there, accidental looks during UFC fights were all commentator Joe Rogan needed to launch into a rant about glove design. If only we had something more curved, he said, something that made it more difficult to extend fingers toward an opponent’s eyes. Then, what seemed like eons later, a brand new glove model appeared. And this design instead made it easier to poke someone in the eye, while providing greater comfort for the hands in the process.

This is not to say that the new UFC gloves are bad. The fighters at UFC 302 seem to like them overall, although a few have also said they don’t care one way or another. It just seems strange to rework the gloves in order to solve problems that no one else has really brought up, while ignoring the big one that always lingers right in front of our faces like an outstretched finger.