In the wake of UFC Vegas 21, the recurrence of eye pokes seemed to be the theme of the week, and Daniel Cormier understands that the issue is trickier to solve than it seems, even if the UFC redesigns their current gloves.
In the main event last Saturday, Belal Muhammad suffered a horrible eye poke injury against the streaking Leon Edwards and the bout ended in a no-contest. Since then, mass controversy has taken over social media in a heated argument as to if actions need to be taken either with the fighter (by taking a point without warning) or if ultimately, the right answer is a redesign of the current UFC gloves.
Cormier Discusses Issues With UFC Glove Redesign

Former double champion, Daniel Cormier chimed in about the problem and realistically believes there is no definitive answer.
“A lot of times when you poke eyes, you are trying to grab. Daniel Cormier said to Ariel Helwani at ESPN. If your fingers aren’t allowed to open or straighten, I think that you could eliminate some of the eye-poking but the reality is, there’s gonna be issues with the gloves being curved if we go forward. My thing is this, you’re never gonna find something that works perfectly. There’s gonna be issues with everything and I don’t know what it’s gonna take in order to stop eye-poking. I believe eye pokes will still happen, maybe not as frequently but they will still happen,” Daniel Cormier said “Eye pokes happen just about every fight. The big one that just happened with Belal (Muhammad) — when was the last time a big one like that happened where it was so damaging?”
With the prevalence of fouls increasing lately, perhaps a change is in order, but the UFC and Cormier seem uncertain of the answer. Seemingly Daniel Cormier is adamant that regardless of what is done with the gloves, that fouls and eye pokes will still happen. In part, because in a fight the two athletes constantly reaching and grabbing at each other, not just striking which all can result in an inadvertent eye poke.
Essentially, there are two schools of thought, either change the fighter’s behavior with point deductions and other consequences or physically redesign the gloves in order to prevent eye pokes from happening as often. To get a better idea of the history of glove designs, our own from MMANews Ed Carbazel breaks down the event and explains the differences between gloves at various promotions.
After hearing what Daniel Cormier said about the idea of redesigning UFC gloves, do you believe it is necessary, or would it be better to find a different solution to the glove problem? Let us know below!