Mixed martial arts has had an eye poke problem since the sport began. Eye pokes seem to occur on every fight card. The issue became amplified when the UFC 321 main event heavyweight title bout between champion Tom Aspinall and former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane came to an abrupt end late in the opening round due to an eye gouge.
Gane poked Aspinall in both eyes rendering him unable to continue. The bout was ruled a no contest, Aspinall retained the belt, and the eye poke conversation was renewed.
Former two-division UFC champion Georges St-Pierre believes a change in glove design could dramatically reduce the amount of eye pokes that occur.
“Trevor Whitman designed a pair of gloves, and I’m not paid to do that. That’s not an ad, but he really had a pair of gloves designed that when you put it on it forces your hand to fold,” St-Pierre explained to Helen Yee Sports.
“I believe the mistake with the UFC glove is that they’re straight, so when you put your hand through the glove and you relax your fingers come out. You need a pair of gloves that is folded. A little bit like a boxing glove but for MMA, so when you put it on and you relax your hand it automatically folds itself,” St-Pierre continued.
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“I think it would help prevent the eye gouge because naturally when you’re in stance and you relax it will fold your fingers and I think perhaps diminish number of eye pokes.”
UFC did introduce a new glove design and debuted them at UFC 300. They received mixed reactions from fighters. Five months later the fight promotion announced that it was going back to the older style gloves.
