It’s no secret that the world of mixed martial arts is a high-risk sport. Eye pokes and broken hands are just a few of the many dangers that UFC stars face inside the octagon.
But UFC has been ignoring the criticism about their gloves for years. Many MMA promotions have gloves that feature an arch that makes it harder to extend the fingers towards your opponents face, while defending.
Coach Trevor Wittman found a solution – but he wasn’t willing to outright sell it to the UFC which led the promotion to pass on his X-factor gloves.
Former UFC champion Rashad Evans first introduced the X-Factor gloves to UFC commentator Joe Rogan on his podcast, the ‘Joe Rogan Experience.’ These gloves were specifically designed to mitigate the risk of eye-pokes during a bout, an issue that has plagued the sport for years.
Even Joe Rogan went in on the criticism of the gloves:
“Trevor [Whitman] makes the best f**kin’ equipment. His MMA gloves should adopted by all organizations,” Rogan said.
“The fact that the UFC and him haven’t come to some sort of an agreement doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Because the UFC gloves that they use are so inferior to the gloves that Trevor makes. Those ONX MMA gloves — I think we would have less eye pokes because they make your hand curve — forces your hand to curve, I think we’d have less hand breaks because I think it offers better support for your hands.”
But now it looks like UFC has rectified the issue. Recent episode of UFC countdown featured Gilbert Burns trying on the new gear.
It looks like the extended fingers issue has been addressed at the very least. UFC stars have complained forever that UFC gloves made their fingers stick straight out when they relaxed their hands. Gilbert was demonstrating that these new ones don’t do that. They let them rest in a more natural, curled position.
There’s still a degree of skepticism about the design considering there’s very little actual media who will prod the process used to get to these allegedly new gloves.