New gloves coming to an Octagon near you
👀More info: https://t.co/LM2GpGfS2p pic.twitter.com/IV17byIapl
— UFC (@ufc)
April 12, 2024
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship has changed its glove, and
fighters will start using them in June.
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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.