Dustin Poirier Praises New UFC Gloves

Dustin Poirier is one of the few Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes thus far who has positive things to say about the promotion’s new gloves.

The UFC introduced the new gloves starting with UFC 302 on June 1. Along with several other issues, the gloves were designed to mitigate the eye pokes that have been rampant in the sport.

Poirier liked the new gloves, as he felt that they helped keep his fist closed better than the previous ones. However, Poirier noted that the gloves had thinner padding, as he showed off severely bruised knuckles even nine days after his fight against Islam Makhachev. Poirier further recalled that despite landing 178 significant strikes in his 2019 interim lightweight title win over Max Holloway, his knuckles weren’t as bruised as in his fight against Makhachev, where he landed only 74. Poirier shared his thoughts on the new golves during an appearance on "The MMA Hour.”

“I like them, I like them. My hands kind of got a little banged up,” Poirier said. “They’re thinner, my hand is still healing. But I like them because I can make a closed fist very tight. The other gloves were very tough to make a closed fist…In the Max fight, there was a lot of volume thrown, so my knuckles were raw but not this deep a cut on my knuckle…It’s different [the gold color], I don’t mind it. I see people talking trash. To each their own. I like it, thought it was cool.”