'They make your hand open' - Georges St-Pierre doesn't hold back in his criticism of UFC gloves
Georges St-Pierre has aired his frustration over the design of the UFC gloves. In a recent interview with ESPN, GSP expressed his thoughts on the equipment and UFC gloves while talking about the Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad fight that ended in a no-contest after an accidental eye poke from Edwards severely impaired Muhammad's vision, to the point where he could no longer continue.
"The gloves, the way they're made, they make the hand open, the gloves in Bellator, they make your hands closed. That's why you don't see as much eye pokes in Bellator than in UFC... We need to change that. It's normal that we adjust as the sport goes on. The same thing with PED, now they need to adjust with the equipment. I think that's one thing to improve these freaking gloves... I love to watch a good fight like it was this weekend between Edwards and Muhammad, and unfortunately, this thing just messed up the fight," Georges St-Pierre said.
The unfortunate ending to the main event of the UFC Vegas 21 fight card has given air to the longstanding issues of eye pokes in MMA. Eye pokes are the most dangerous form of illegal moves that can have severe repercussions on athletes' health. The UFC gloves design has been criticized for frequent incidents in the UFC that are not as common in other promotions like Bellator or the erstwhile Pride FC which use a different design that forces the fists to close.
Trevor Wittman explains the mechanics of UFC gloves that cause fighters to keep an open palm during fights
Famed MMA coach Trevor Wittman is also an equipment designer who has pursued the UFC and Dana White to adopt a different design for UFC gloves on many occasions. During his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in May 2020, Wittman explained the mechanics of UFC gloves that force fighters to keep their palms open during fights which lead to frequent eye pokes.
Wittman said that the design of UFC gloves is such that the material of gloves and hand wraps underneath them put a lot of pressure in between the fingers when fists are closed. Fighters have to use their forearm strength to keep the fists closed which is uncomfortable and therefore tend to close their fists only when they commit to punches.
"So this is what happens with fighters and everyone who has wore and fought in these UFC gloves. They also have a hand-wrap underneath them. What happens is when you make a fist, it starts to put a lot of pressure in between your fingers and that's a huge thing that fighters feel... It's also hard to make a grip because it's tough... you have to constantly use your forearm strength to keep a closed fist," Trevor Wittman said.