{"id":27744,"date":"2025-07-27T21:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27744\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T21:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T21:16:07","slug":"khalil-rountree-reveals-real-reason-ufc-abandoned-new-glove-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27744\/","title":{"rendered":"Khalil Rountree reveals real reason UFC abandoned new glove design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Khalil Rountree<\/a> knows why the new UFC gloves didn\u2019t last\u2014and the answer might not be what you think.<\/p>\n

When the UFC debuted an updated glove design in April 2024, the initial reaction was mixed<\/a>, with fighters questioning how the gear might affect performance and whether it could potentially reduce eye pokes. Less than a year later, the design was abandoned<\/a> in favor of the older model, leading to further speculation as to the reasoning.<\/p>\n

Were they uncomfortable? Did they make it more difficult for fighters to score knockouts? Was it just to appease an unhappy Jon Jones<\/a>?<\/p>\n

During an interview on the The Joe Rogan Experience<\/a>, Rountree\u2014who was involved in developing and testing the new gloves\u2014revealed the real reason for the recall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing was that because of the leather, the logos weren\u2019t sticking,\u201d Rountree said. \u201cSo the logos were peeling off, peeling off, peeling off. I\u2019m telling you, we tried hundreds of different ways to get the UFC logo printed on the gloves so that they will not come off in the octagon. From me testing it on the canvas, doing live situations, sparring, rubbing it in the cage, blah blah, it just would not [stay on].\u201d<\/p>\n

When the new design was first announced, it was presented as having the potential to reduce hand injuries and allow for improved hand dexterity. Fans blamed the gloves on reducing the amount of knockouts during their duration of usage, but due to the relatively small size, data is inconclusive as to whether the equipment was truly at fault.<\/p>\n

Rountree competed once in the new gloves, donning the gold variant as he challenged champion Alex Pereira<\/a> for the light heavyweight title at UFC 307<\/a>. Neither man\u2019s punching power seemed to suffer from the design as they battered each other for the better part of four rounds before Pereira found a finish heading into Round 5.<\/p>\n

According to Rountree, the issue had more to do with manufacturing material than manufacturing knockouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause with everything in the world, but especially in the industry of leather and suede and all that stuff, if I had a pair of leather shoes from 1970 it\u2019s going to be different than the leather that\u2019s made today,\u201d Rountree said. \u201cYou get what I mean? It\u2019s a different type of leather. It\u2019s just not the same. It was a little softer, but it\u2019s treated differently while it\u2019s being processed or whatever that whole process looks like, it\u2019s just there\u2019s some type of chemical or something that\u2019s just different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rountree added that there were safety concerns surrounding the new gloves, but not necessarily related to bruises or broken bones. It was actually the finicky that was the main source of their problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has nothing to do with the knockouts,\u201d Rountree said. \u201cIt\u2019s that every time when the fighters come to return a pair of gloves or whatever or even in the fight, it\u2019s peeling off or chipping off and that\u2019s a hazard if it gets in your eye. It\u2019s more about the safety of the fighters, not like, \u2018We need more knockouts, change the gloves.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more that the logo wasn\u2019t adhering and it doesn\u2019t look professional to have these guys fighting a championship fight and then here\u2019s this guy raising his hand and there\u2019s no UFC logo on the glove. It all gets worn off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Khalil Rountree knows why the new UFC gloves didn\u2019t last\u2014and the answer might not be what you think.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[21943,49,48,356,641,700,16351,21941,701,638,5268,4551,15118,1616,21942,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-27744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-abandoned","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-fighting","tag-front-page","tag-glove","tag-khalil","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-new","tag-real","tag-reason","tag-reveals","tag-rountree","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}