The UFC uses poorly designed gloves that do nothing to prevent eye shots. It shouldn’t be like this. Another week, another eye poke controversy at a UFC event.
At this point, accidental eye pokes during fights are just a part of the sport. No matter how many times one fighter might stick his fingers into the eyes of another fighter, we deem it unintentional and rarely even take a point over the matter.
UFC Atlantic City featured a fight between Chris Weidman and Bruno Silva that featured several unpunished eye pokes, including two in the finishing stanza that led to a Weidman win. Nothing can be done about it, right? Wrong.
Fellow UFC fighter and UFC 300 co-main participant Justin Gaethje has just weighed in on the New Jersey situation with a subtle reminder that the promotion is semi-responsible for all the eye pokes in their fights.
“Too bad UFC don’t want to change those s— gloves,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
That’s right: fighters are well aware that the official UFC gloves are at fault for a lot of eye pokes. The stiff leather pulls your hand open, leaving fingers outstretched which is a key issue when it comes to accidental eye injuries. We’ve known this for years.
Justin Gaethje is especially aware of this because his coach Trevor Wittman developed his own MMA glove called the ONX glove which curves the hand so it’s nearly impossible for your fingers to be in the outstretched position.
According to Joe Rogan, the UFC has looked at the glove and were interested in using them but decided not to because Wittman wouldn’t sell them the design outright.
So next time you see a fight ruining eye poke, remember that the UFC is well aware their gloves are poorly designed and cause eye pokes. Know that there are better gloves out there that would prevent eye pokes. And understand that it is a choice by the promotion to not use them.