After a series of brutal fight-altering eye pokes in Atlantic City, is the UFC finally changing its gloves?
After another fight card with eye pokes aplenty, is the Ultimate Fighting Championship ready to make a change?
As pointed out by John Morgan on X, the promotion is scheduled to deliver a “New UFC Equipment Announcement and Presentation” on Friday at noon PDT. Fans immediately flocked to the comments, hoping that this meant the Las Vegas-based company would unveil a new glove design to help address the UFC’s eye-poke epidemic.
Amy Kaplan of FanSided MMA also revealed on X that the announcement will be a “UFC Glove Launch” following the official weigh-ins for UFC 300, which goes down this Saturday night, April 13.
“There will be a “New UFC Glove Launch presentation” on Friday after the official weigh-ins,” Kaplan’s post reads. “It’s unclear if this will be special branded gloved for the event or actually a new design of the gloves.”
As Kaplan explains, this could be nothing more than the presentation of a glove featuring a unique logo to celebrate the promotion’s landmark event this weekend.
Two Fights end as the result of eye pokes in the UFC’s return to Atlantic City
Returning to the Octagon at UFC Atlantic City on March 30, former middleweight champion Chris Weidman climbed back into the win column for the first time since 2020. Unfortunately, the victory was mired in controversy after a slow-motion replay revealed that the ‘All American’ had poked his opponent, Bruno Silva, in the eye not once, but twice during the fight-ending sequence. Still, Weidman walked away with the win, first by TKO before being switched to a unanimous decision.
Moments before, Nursulton Ruziboev claimed his 10th-straight win with a TKO over Sedriques Dumas. However, Dumas appeared to get poked in the eye at one point and immediately protested. The referee allowed the fight to continue as he did not see the eye poke occur in real time. Moments later, Riziboev pummeled Dumas against the fence, forcing the stoppage and claiming what would be one of two incredibly controversial wins on the night.
