Fighters at UFC 302 will be wearing new gloves and whilst they’ve been designed to reduce eye pokes, even the champion is concerned about more injuries.
The latest development in the equipment and presentation of the UFC will be on full display at UFC 302 this weekend as brand-new fighting gloves are set to be introduced – although athletes are already concerned that they could lead to more controversial fight-ending injuries.
New gloves are set to be introduced at UFC 302
Called the 3Eight and 5Eight, the new gloves that are set to be introduced at UFC 302 in Newark, New Jersey have been designed to reduce the number of eye pokes and hand injuries.
Not only are these new gloves lighter than the previous design, but they also have a slimmer profile and have added protection in key areas around the knuckles that will hopefully, see the number of broken hands dramatically reduced moving forward.
“This redesign will truly be a game changer for the entire sport of MMA,” said Dana White, explaining that “These gloves will feel lighter, fit fighters’ hands better, prevent injuries, and provide maximum flexibility during the fights.”
Islam Makhachev is concerned new gloves will lead to more cuts
Yet not everyone is satisfied with the new design, with a number of UFC fighters now coming out to explain that whilst we might see more knockouts and fewer eye pokes, we might also see more cuts to the eyes and forehead of athletes.
One superstar who has recently come out to suggest this as a likely outcome from this weekend onwards is the man who UFC 302 has been built around; lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
Speaking via the Sport24 YouTube channel, Makhachev predicted that the new gloves would lead to more abrasions as a consequence of the one thing the gloves were meant to prevent.
“They are very stiff [and] as I’ve told you, they will lead to more cuts – as the previous UFC gloves were softer [whereas] these are stiffer.”
“They don’t let you fully open your hand just to make sure the fingers don’t extend straight forward but overall; they are pretty much the same.”
It was stated during the official presentation of the new gloves that the design includes fewer seems on the outside to prevent such abrasions; however, Makhachev isn’t the only UFC fighter who expects to see more cuts as a result of the new equipment.
Welterweight veteran Randy ‘Rudeboy’ Brown also predicted that the gloves could cause more abrasions, specifically for how much of the internal leather comes away from his fingers:
“Another thing that I did notice, check out how much that [leather] comes off from my fingers, these come off really far [away] from my outer knuckles so I do think that can cause a little bit more cuts for grazing shots [and] scrape you.”
“I’m thinking about that and I’m keeping an eye on that, but that was one of the first things I noticed as a con,” Brown noted, ahead of his own fight at UFC 302 against Elizeu Zaleski.
Despite acknowledging that more fight-ending cuts could be on the horizon, current lightweight king Makhachev also noted that the opportunity to be the first fighter to wear the newly developed gloves is another accomplishment to add to the collection:
“I am going to frame them next to the belt as the first golden gloves in the UFC [and] I believe that means a lot.”
Islam Makhachev vs Dustin Poirier goes down from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on June 1.