For years, UFC fans have talked about MMA coach Trevor Wittman’s ONX gloves as a potential fix-all for many problems in the sport. The special padding and internal strapping reportedly makes it much less likely for fighters to damage their hands while punching. And more importantly, the material used and curve on the glove makes keeping your hand in a fist much easier, which could theoretically lower the number of eye pokes we see.
There was a hot minute where the UFC was negotiating with Wittman to license the gloves, but a deal fell apart over the promotion reportedly wanting to own the glove design rather than license it. The UFC then came out with their own glove which design-wise didn’t do anything to fix eye-pokes, but did seem to cause a surprising 10% decrease in knockouts. Whoops. Rather than go back to the drawing board, the UFC threw the drawing board in the garbage and went back to the old gloves.
Or so we thought. According to Wittman’s protege Justin Gaethje, the UFC Freedom 250 gloves were different. Whether or not that was on purpose is unclear, but it seems like the UFC accidentally made their gloves a bit better for the White House.
“The gloves I fought in this week were different,” Gaethje told Joe Rogan on his podcast. “The leather was different. It was a little bit thicker, I think, and so it was softer. And so every time I’ve ever fought, I’ve had the most excruciating pain in between my hands right here, and I didn’t feel that at all this fight. This was looser and it was thicker. It’s weird. Better. Better for comfortability. You have no idea how uncomfortable we are, and you’re constantly pulling on the tongue here, trying to get compression.”
Gaethje focused on how comfortable the gloves were and how they protected his hands, but noted they did make it easier to keep the fingers curled.
“The issue is the comfortability of the athlete and the performance of the athlete,” he said. “That is where your ambition has to lie when it comes to making the glove better. Because the thing is, the gloves we’re fighting in now are f–king terrible. It’s hard to make a fist. You have to use your entire muscle of your arm to make a fist. And so by the time we get to the fight, [your forearm is] exhausted. And then the pressure in between your fingers is, like, something you can’t replicate.”
“When I’m relaxed and if my hand can be in this [closed] position when I’m relaxed, then I’m okay. Then there’s not gonna be as many eye pokes. But when I relax and it goes [open], you’re never gonna take the human reaction and instinct away to protect yourself. And the instinct to protect yourself is [fingers out]. That is the instinct.”
It’s kind of shocking that the UFC has gotten away with using a glove design that actively pulls the hand open. We imagine that’s a small fact that someone like Tom Aspinall could use in a lawsuit if they wanted to get litigious against the promotion. Maybe that’s why we’re suddenly seeing a new push from UFC execs to bring the ONX gloves in.
“So Hunter reached out to me three weeks ago, four weeks ago, and said he wanted to ignite the conversation again,” Wittman revealed to Rogan. “So we’ll see where that goes.”
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