UFC ditches new fighter gloves designed to minimize eye pokes after just 6 months

Jon Jones is widely considered the greatest fighter to ever strap on gloves in UFC -- and he’ll have a familiar pair for his heavyweight title defense against Stipe Miocic.

UFC decided ahead of Saturday’s card at Madison Square Garden to ditch the ballyhooed new fight gloves unveiled in the spring designed in large part to stunt eye pokes that often render fighters unable to continue. It is the first major change of the protective equipment in more than a decade.

The new gloves were knocked out after six months.

The global MMA leader returned to its old school style of gloves for the UFC 309 card headlined by the Jones-Miocic title fight. The change appears permanent, in large part because of fighter complaints.

“The new gloves are now the old gloves,” UFC President Dana White said.

The new gloves had been used on cards held since UFC 302 in June.

Some notable changes included: seams on the palm side of the hand just below the fingers, designed to minimize abrasions and cuts; new padding that was expected to make it easier for fighters to keep their fingers in a natural position and minimize eye pokes; and removal of finger binding intended to reduce bulk and minimize seams that may cause abrasions and cuts.

Male and female sizing was eliminated in favor of 10 unisex sizes. The gloves weighed between 3 and 4.9 ounces (a reduction of 1 to 1.5 ounces).

Fighters balked from the outset about the gloves designed and engineered by sports equipment manufacture Vicis RDI. They said the gloves failed to deliver on the improved fit, greater comfort and maximum flexibility promised by the company.

“The shape, the curve in your hands, they’re very uncomfortable for me,” Jones said this week in New York. “I was actually really stressed thinking, how am I going to go into fight week wearing these gloves that I don’t even really want to train in?”

He'll wear the familiar equipment for his five-round championship bout.

“It was a major relief to my coach who wraps my hands,” Jones said. “It was a relief to me, as well.”

MMA gloves haven’t evolved much since the company’s inception. When UFC held its first event in November 1993, fighter Art Jimmerson competed with one bare hand and one boxing glove. UFC 14 in 1997 was the first event in nwhich the company made it mandatory to wear padded gloves.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Dan Gelston, The Associated Press