Ariel Helwani was the first to report that all fighters on the UFC 309 cards will not be using the new gloves implemented at UFC 302, but the prior gloves.
MMA Junkie corroborated the report with at least three individuals with knowledge that the fights taking place at New York’s Madison Square Garden will be with the glove used pre-June 1 this year.
The new gloves were touted as being better constructed, fitted well and were made of better material. It was also a deterrent to eye pokes which were a mainstay in MMA with the open finger gloves. However, there were murmurs that the new gloves were causing more cuts to fighters. Others chimed in as to whether the new gloves equated to less knockouts and TKOs.
Payout Perspective:
It does seem odd that the fight camps were not alerted of the change until fight week. This seems like a disadvantage to all but it could be an issue that the commission had or the UFC wanting to revert back to the older gloves to create more action. Certainly, there has to have been someone keeping track of the gloves and perhaps the lack of KOs made the company decide to revert back to the old gloves. Saturday night we may or may not see a difference.
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