The UFC has recently been going through somewhat of a scourge of eye pokes. The Dana White-led promotion was under pressure from fans as well as analysts to do something to improve it. And the UFC, recognizing the problem, introduced a new and improved model of gloves.

The latest iteration of the UFC’s official fingerless gloves have been named 3EIGHT and 5EIGHT (which are exactly the same except the latter is golden and the former is black), have been designed to make sure a fighter’s fingers are curved, and not easily straightened during the fight. But, UFC commentator Joe Rogan thinks the new models are not much of an improvement over the old ones.

Joe Rogan suggests new design changes to prevent eye-pokes

Joe Rogan is not a fan of the new gloves and felt that despite the many changes in padding and design, the eye poke problem remains largely unchanged. The JRE podcast host gave his own input on how gloves should be to prevent eye-pokes on his JRE Fight Companion show with his friends and comedians Brendan Schaub and Bryan Callen.

“These new gloves they ain’t no better than the old gloves. People are still getting poked in the eye… I should say it’s better padding. The best gloves the best gloves are clearly not made yet. They need to cover the fingers,” he said.

Rogan felt that the biggest problem with the existing designs was that the fingers were left uncovered. The UFC commentator felt that if a thin layer of leather could be added for the fingers to slide into, the instances of eye pokes would automatically decrease significantly.

“All you have to do is have padding on the knuckles and a protective layer a thin leather layer that covers the hands that the fingers slip into… It eliminates probably 90% of all eye pokes and it doesn’t change anything with grappling, anything with striking. But yeah man cover the f***ing fingers, there’s no reason to have these fingers open like this… You’d still get poked a little bit but that’s not as bad,” Rogan added.

However, the JRE podcast host complained that no one in the UFC brass actually listened to him, which is why his suggestions haven’t been taken on board for the new design. “There’s no argument against it. Again, nobody listens to me. There’s no argument, nobody listens to me,” Rogan ruefully told Schaub and Callen.

What changes have been made to the new UFC gloves?

UFC CEO Dana White had claimed that the new gloves would be “a game changer for the entire sport of MMA” because of their much-improved design. And the changes are not insignificant. The weight of the gloves has been reduced from 1.5 ounces to 1 ounce, with a better, more snug design to better fit for fighters’ hands. The padding for the genuine leather gloves has also been improved with a stacked, contoured multi-layer foam.

The new gloves also promise improved flexibility at the wrists to make it easier for fighters to grapple with each other. To prevent cuts and lacerations from the threading on the gloves, the seams have been removed from the edges of the gloves. However, these changes clearly are not good enough for Rogan, who thinks the new gloves are not much better.

What do you think?