UFC officially abandons new glove design, returns to old gloves for all events moving forward

The new UFC gloves first unveiled in April 2024 have already been abandoned by the promotion with a full-time return to the older gloves starting at UFC Vegas 102 on Saturday.

UFC play-by-play man John Gooden announced the news just as the broadcast was beginning.

“One note starting tonight and moving forward, all fighters will return to using the old gloves, not the ones recently introduced,” Gooden confirmed.

The plan to go back to the old gloves has been in the works for several months, but the UFC had to take time to manufacture enough of them for all events without running short. So until the manufacturing caught up, the UFC was using the old gloves on pay-per-view events and the newer glove design on Fight Night cards.

Now that manufacturing has caught up, the new gloves are dead and the old gloves have been resurrected.

When the UFC first announced the new gloves this past year, the goal was to reduce hand injuries and eye pokes while maintaining dexterity in the hands so performances and outcomes wouldn’t be affected. Unfortunately, the feedback on the new gloves wasn’t great and the results didn’t help much either with less knockouts than usual occurring once the updated design was introduced (due to a limited sample size, it’s unclear if the new gloves were to blame).

“Because there were a lot of complaints,” White said about the new gloves this past November. “We originally created these gloves to stop eye pokes and we had good intentions with them. They didn’t work out. People weren’t happy with them.

“So I actually made the decision. Called our chief operating officer Lawrence [Epstein] and said I’m switching the gloves, I want the old gloves back.”

Among the fighters who complained about the new gloves was UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who attempted to break in a pair prior to his fight against Stipe Miocic. His concerns raised enough red flags that the UFC actually returned to the old gloves for that event with the manufacturers then tasked with producing even more of the old gloves for the future.

“I tried them on and I thought they were tight,” Jones said about the newer gloves prior to his fight. “I used to fit in XL and in the new glove I had to put on a 3XL. The shape, curving your hands like that, they were very uncomfortable for me.”

In the end, the UFC decided to just stick with what already worked and the old gloves are back in action for all fights and events moving forward. There’s no word if the promotion might consider a newer or different design for the future.