Media UFC gloves lead to more eyepokes study says.

[Qays Stetkevich]

We've been saying this for over a decade. PRIDE was right on damn near everything MMA as far as rules, scoring, environment and equipment. Extremely rare you'd ever see an eyepoke on a PRIDE card.

Also, Pride had real penalty (card) systems that were actually enforced, and took away from the offender´s purse (in weight cutting), was stricter on eye pokes, and dealt with weight misses better.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Fans have been asking for a glove modification for at least the last 15 or more years. I don't think it's happening at this point unless Jon Jone blinds his next opponent by accident

 

[jx820]

Dana wanted the trademark for the design, not just buying the finished product from Trevor. It's a silly demand.

You don't understand manufacturing surity, risk analysis, and you're over-estimating the value added.

They don't need Trevor Whitman's manufacturing capacity, they don't need his supply chain, they don't even need the materials suppliers.

The only value he brings to the table is the design, and if he can pull the licensing for that in the future, sell a comparable product under his own brand, or sell to the competition it's not a real value add.

They're a multi billion dollar operation. They can't afford supply chain interruptions just to work with some GarageBand sports equipment manufacturer working a second job as a coach. That's a crazy proposition.

If Trevor doesn't want to sell his design that's his prerogative, but the UFC is completely right to be dubious of his ability to manufacture and deliver on schedule at scale.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Oh yes blame the gloves. They should watch a Jones fight. If the UFC refs are not going to call the constant jabs with fingers extended you will have more eye pokes.

Well the study didn't include any fights with Jon Jones since he hasn't fought since 2020. The referee pool would be mainly the same since PFL, Bellator & the UFC have the same refs in general.

Jon would be an outlier in that he does it purposely and as a strategy.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

There gloves are ass, and no Bellator's gloves do not hinder grappling. If anything the amount of lame ass wrestling in Bellator is why it is so boring.

The reason why the UFC doesn't get better gloves is because in corporate entities people do not do things if they do not see a direct benefit to them.

They don't want to go through the hassle of discontinuing it if they know it won't make them more money as well.

 

[Kryptt]

UFC = .099%
PFL = .131% - Professional Fingerbang League
Bellator = .022%

Bellator got some Magic goin on!

 

[mahavishnunj]

This study brought to you by the Institute of No Shit.

 

[mahavishnunj]

We lost so much fucking money on the UFC HotDog brander

I call bullshit on them losing money on that. I bought 30 of them myself.

 

[mahavishnunj]

Jon Jone blinds his next opponent by accident

"accident"

 

[StonedLemur]

Good point, sir.

I don't see why they don't use it since it's a better design, and they already own it.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

These cute gloves worn by Sean might be better ?

 

[markg171]

These kind of studies are completely meaningless as they ignore the human factor. Eye pokes don't happen because of gloves but because fighters stick their fingers out. The gloves aren't steel cages that fighters can't bend, they're pliable leather. They themselves are extending their fingers, not the gloves are extending them.

That isn't to say you can't make better designs that help restrict this/remind fighters to close their fists, but trying to make a study that completely ignores we're talking about pliable leather than any fighter can fold is beyond dumb. The same fighter can make a perfectly fine fist in all of these gloves. UFC gloves aren't stopping this.

UFC fighters eyepoke more as they simply know they can get away with it. Take away points more often and the problem would stop a lot sooner than if you changed the glove.

 

[mahavishnunj]

All good points, especially:

Take away points more often and the problem would stop a lot sooner than if you changed the glove.

Also, this:

 

[Iroh]

I don't see why they don't use it since it's a better design, and they already own it.

They need to sacrifice a certain amount of eyes, yearly, to the JBG for them to bestow the blessing of prosperity upon the company.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

Eye pokes in MMA were discussed at the 2022 Association of Ringside Physicians in Las Vegas recently (per Combat Sports Law). During that discussion data was presented showing how the rate of pokes differed based on the gloves being worn at the time.

The study that was shared at the conference was presented by ARP President Dr. John Neidecker, who is a ringside physician. The study included research by Neidecker, Jared Bukowski, Vijay Kurup and Bobby O’Donnell.

For their study, the researchers analyzed fights in the UFC, Bellator and PFL (all of which have different glove designs). The researchers looked at fights through January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022 and counted the amount of eye pokes that happened in the bouts.

The study found that the rate of eye pokes in the UFC was considerably higher than the rate calculated in Bellator. PFL’s was slightly higher than the UFC’s.

The eye poke rate in the UFC was 23 in 233 bouts, which translates to one per ten bouts. The PFL rate was 6 in 46 (one in every eight bouts). The Bellator rate was 2 in 87 bouts (one in every 44 bouts).

Dr. John Neidecker
The findings aren’t a great shock, considering that Bellator announced a substantial change in their glove design in 2014 with the express purpose of reducing eye pokes. Their glove design includes stiffer finger sections which force an athletes fingers to curl inwards. UFC gloves have no such mechanism, which allows fights to measure distance with their fingers pointing straight out, which often leads to eye pokes.


Neidecker said online that his plan is to continue his study for the remainder of the year. Neidecker also said he would expand his research, looking to see if eye poke rates are affected by which fighters are competing or which official is refereeing the fight.


full article: https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2022/10...red-to-other-promotions-bellator-pfl-mma-news







Interesting article. This has been speculated for years by MMA fans. DC said he poked Stipe 20+ times in their fights because the UFC gloves is uncomfortable.


timestamped.



I think the UFC def needs better glove design. What do my sherbros think? Does anyone thinks eyepoke in fight makes it more interesting and adds more random factor in a fight?

If you wanted to be snarky, you could add to your Original Post Dana's response to this study...from 9 fucking years ago:

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/5/...a-white-says-theyre-working-on-new-mma-gloves
"We actually have started to work on a new glove that actually curves your hand. Like the glove is curved like a U, so you can still open your hand, but your fingers don't point straight out."​

 

[VonSupervillain]

We've been saying this for over a decade. PRIDE was right on damn near everything MMA as far as rules, scoring, environment and equipment. Extremely rare you'd ever see an eyepoke on a PRIDE card.

Damn, I never even realized that. I've watched so many Pride events and I don't know if I ever saw an eye poke. Or even a low blow actually....weird.

 

[DoctorTaco]

I’ve handled all 3 gloves and the Bellator ones are easily the best.

 

[Lepo Lepo]

UFC is cheap and own the rights to their gloves. They don’t give a fuck about fighter safety or having fights end in eyepokes, they already had the fans pay and will book a rematch.

 

[m249viking]

Well the study didn't include any fights with Jon Jones since he hasn't fought since 2020. The referee pool would be mainly the same since PFL, Bellator & the UFC have the same refs in general.

Jon would be an outlier in that he does it purposely and as a strategy.

No shit!!! I said "they should watch a Jones fight.

 

[m249viking]

These kind of studies are completely meaningless as they ignore the human factor. Eye pokes don't happen because of gloves but because fighters stick their fingers out. The gloves aren't steel cages that fighters can't bend, they're pliable leather. They themselves are extending their fingers, not the gloves are extending them.

That isn't to say you can't make better designs that help restrict this/remind fighters to close their fists, but trying to make a study that completely ignores we're talking about pliable leather than any fighter can fold is beyond dumb. The same fighter can make a perfectly fine fist in all of these gloves. UFC gloves aren't stopping this.

UFC fighters eyepoke more as they simply know they can get away with it. Take away points more often and the problem would stop a lot sooner than if you changed the glove.

100%. Juicy Eye Poke Jones made a career out of it so what else can you expect from the new crop?