4oz Gloves vs Eyepokes

Eye pokes in MMA can have devastating effects on fights. We have an article on the potential impacts it could have - none of them good. For context of this article, you may want to read that one first and come back to this article to understand how serious they are and how gloves may impact this. You can read it here (don’t worry, this article isn’t going anywhere).

Now that we’ve established how serious eye pokes can be, what can be done to limit them? Can the organizations do anything to their gloves to try and limit pokes? Should fighters always keep a closed fist? What effects do gloves have on striking and grappling? We’ll examine these questions and provide a potential solution (read to the end to find out)!

There has been criticism from both UFC fighters and viewers of the 4oz gloves that are worn inside the octagon. The most notable point is that it’s somewhat difficult to make/keep a closed fist and that the structure of the glove actually makes it easier for fighters to keep their fingers extended, when at rest.

This had led to comparisons online between the UFC’s current glove and PRIDE FC’s glove. 

In a video made by someone on youtube (linked at the end), they compared the UFC gloves with the PRIDE FC gloves. Here is a summary:

The UFC gloves are made by Century. The natural shape is very stiff and flat, which makes it difficult to make a fist. The design also causes the fingers to point straight out, when it is in its resting position - problematic when it comes to eye pokes.

The PRIDE FC gloves were rumored (but not confirmed) to have been made by Winning (a brand known for their exceptional quality and Japanese craftsmanship). The natural shape was made to wrap around your hand, as it follows the natural anatomy of the hand. As a result, the fingers point downward, making it easy to make fist (and negate the eye poke issue)

When it comes to striking, the general sentiment online is that the PRIDE FC gloves are better than the UFC gloves because it’s easier for fighters to make/keep a fist, while also keeping the fingers pointed down to mitigate eye pokes. However, many people think that the UFC gloves are more grappling friendly than the PRIDE FC gloves, since they allow the hand to open more fully.

Joe Rogan has even made comments about the PRIDE FC gloves vs the UFC gloves in the past. Given his extensive martial arts background and analytical career as a UFC commentator, it makes you question if the UFC should change their gloves.

So what’s the solution? We think we could have a potential solution to the eye poke issue and still allow for freedom of movement and full range of motion in the striking and grappling areas:

Our Sanabul Battle Forged 4oz mma gloves – used in Brendan Allen’s mma promotion, All In Combat – have a very similar design to the gloves used in PRIDE.

We designed our 4oz mma gloves with a slightly curved shape to feel more natural. The shape of the glove follows the natural curvature of a hand, which makes it easy to make a fist. In addition, the fingers are not pointing straight out (as they would be in the UFC’s glove), they are slightly curved downward - something that helps to mitigate the eye poke problem.

Unlike what has been said about the UFC’s mma gloves (not our words, just what we’ve heard/read), the Sanabul battle forged gloves are not super stiff. They have padding, but the padding is somewhat flexible to allow practitioners to grapple with full range of motion with their hands (open palm), while still being able to make a closed fist easily.

You can find a comparison image at the top of this page, before the article starts

The 4oz Battle Forged gloves still provide enough protection for both you and your training partners (to avoid injury during training, leading up to a fight), while still maintaining enough flexibility to be comfortable when striking AND grappling.

While this article focuses on our Battle Forged 4oz mma gloves, all of our 4oz mma gloves have the same shape and similar qualities. You can find them here:

Essential 4oz mma gloves

CORE 4oz mma gloves

Battle Forged 4oz mma gloves

Video breakdown of PRIDE FC vs UFC gloves 

Thank you for reading - we hope you found this article interesting!