The UFC glove design has continued to plague the promotion for several years with no signs of getting any higher.
This past Saturday’s UFC 321 predominant event between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane is the very best profile fight that has been tormented by an eye fixed gouge, which led to it being called a no contest.
And following such a disastrous end to the heavyweight title fight, fans could have been hopeful of some clarity and understanding regarding the long run of eye pokes within the UFC from boss Dana White.
Despite that, what fans got was a frustrated response from the president, who ultimately continued along with his claim that, ‘it’s just an element of the game’.
The history of gloves worn within the UFC
Potentially essentially the most frustrating part about eye pokes within the premier promotion is that there are seemingly no plans to enhance what continues to plague the game.
Last yr, the UFC designed and debuted a brand new glove which was created in an try and combat the growing issue of gauges, prods and pokes.
The fingerless design included a sturdier material on the ends of the fingers, which was made to naturally create a bend in fighters’ fingers.
Nonetheless, they didn’t last long, and after former UFC champion Jon Jones complained concerning the design and fit within the lead as much as his fight against Stipe Miocic, the promotion quickly reverted back to the old design.
Wildly, though, gloves weren’t all the time a requirement within the UFC, and so they were first utilized by Art Jimmerson at UFC 1, who opted to simply wear one glove, which was a boxing glove.
After which at UFC 4, Melton Bowen decided to wear a pair of gloves, which was the primary time the ‘MMA’ glove design was worn contained in the UFC Octagon.
In 1995 at UFC 6, Tank Abbott became the primary fighter within the promotion’s history to wear Harbinger gloves, which were essentially the most widely known MMA glove.
Tito Ortiz takes credit for inventing the trendy day UFC glove
Although Abbott was the primary fighter to wear the Harbinger glove, it’s former UFC champion Tito Ortiz who takes credit for inventing the trendy day UFC glove.
“I’ll provide you with a greater one and that is gonna be crazy, you already know the UFC MMA gloves? I made those motherf——,” Ortiz said on the Jaxxon Podcast in 2023.
“I gave Dana a prototype and he said he was gonna make it through Ouono gloves, after which hastily I got cut out of the deal. It was the Harbinger gloves, do you remember the Harbinger gloves you used to hit bags with?
“So what I did was I cut the thumb out, I cut the highest knuckle parts out because that they had the knuckles padded, I cut it so it was just the highest, and I am going, ‘That is how you must make the following gloves’.
“He said, ‘You sure?’ and I am going, ‘Dude, they’re awesome’. I got cut out of that deal and so they made their very own s—,” Ortiz continued.
At one cut-off date, Ortiz and White were relatively close friends and had an excellent relationship during Ortiz’s time within the promotion.
Despite that, their relationship fell apart over time and now White openly admits that Ortiz is his most hated fighter of all time.