Dustin
Poirier is one of the few
Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes thus far who has
positive things to say about the promotion’s new gloves.
The UFC
introduced the new gloves starting with UFC 302
on June 1. Along with several other issues, the gloves were
designed to mitigate the eye pokes that have been rampant in the
sport.
Poirier liked the new gloves, as he felt that they helped keep his
fist closed better than the previous ones. However, Poirier noted
that the gloves had thinner padding, as he showed off severely
bruised knuckles even nine days after his fight against Islam
Makhachev. Poirier further recalled that despite landing 178
significant strikes in his 2019 interim lightweight title win over
Max
Holloway, his knuckles weren’t as bruised as in his fight
against Makhachev, where he landed only 74. Poirier shared his
thoughts on the new golves during an appearance on „The MMA Hour.”
“I like them, I like them. My hands kind of got a little banged
up,” Poirier said. “They’re thinner, my hand is still healing. But
I like them because I can make a closed fist very tight. The other
gloves were very tough to make a closed fist…In the Max fight,
there was a lot of volume thrown, so my knuckles were raw but not
this deep a cut on my knuckle…It’s different [the gold color], I
don’t mind it. I see people talking trash. To each their own. I
like it, thought it was cool.”