UFC Releases New Glove Design, Claiming to Reduce Chance of Injury and Eye Pokes

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has changed its glove, and fighters will start using them in June.

Following the UFC 300 official weigh-ins on Friday, the promotion displayed a new glove design. According to the UFC, tests began on the most recent season of Dana White’s Contender Series. Implementation of this new glove will take place at UFC 302 in June, as the organization will issue the gloves to the fighters to let them get used to them before using them in live combat. They will be produced by Dyaco, a company that manufactures fitness and combat equipment.

During the presentation, executives Duncan French and Ember Morr showed off the new pattern, which includes a varying color scheme. Red gloves will be given to fighters on developmental leagues like Road to UFC, blue gloves will be worn by competitors on the Contender Series, one shade of black for “The Ultimate Fighter” matches, darker black gloves for standard UFC matches and gold specifically for champions. Compared to the previous design, these gloves will be lighter by an ounce to 1.5 oz., and the sizing will no longer be based on gender and instead ranges from XXXS to XXXXL.

The promotion stated that the design changes, which include shifting the seam to the palm instead of the outer edge, and a different attachment on the wrist, will cut down on damage caused by the gloves themselves and potential fouls attributed to them. Additionally, French claimed that eye pokes diminished in the limited run on the Contender Series, but the sample size was small and compared to the remainder of the other seasons. It could not be determined at that point whether the changed glove actually reduced eye pokes by a statistically significant rate.

Finally, the UFC is putting a chip in each glove that identifies the fighter and the specific match, for authentication in the collection of memorabilia. It does not appear that the league will use these chips to track information like punch speed in the same vein as the Professional Fighters League.