Khalil Rountree Jr discusses UFC abandoning new glove design

UFC fighter Khalil Rountree Jr has spoken out about why the promotion decided to abandon their new glove design.

In his title fight against Alex Pereira, Khalil Rountree Jr put forward an incredible effort in a bid to win the UFC light heavyweight championship. While he didn’t quite get over the finish line, he certainly left it all in the cage. It was one of the most exciting fights of the year and in addition to that, it was one of the only title fights to take place with the new UFC glove design (and gold color).

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It didn’t take long before the UFC abandoned the glove design and reverted back to what they had before. One of the reasons, or at least it seemed from the outside, was because there weren’t many knockouts in comparison to the first design.

In a recent interview, though, Rountree Jr provided a different perspective.

Rountree Jr discusses glove design

“The main thing was that because of the leather, the logos weren’t sticking,” Rountree said. “So the logos were peeling off, peeling off, peeling off. I’m 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].”

“Because 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’s going to be different than the leather that’s made today,” Rountree said. “You get what I mean? It’s a different type of leather. It’s just not the same. It was a little softer, but it’s treated differently while it’s being processed or whatever that whole process looks like, it’s just there’s some type of chemical or something that’s just different.”

“It has nothing to do with the knockouts,” Rountree said. “It’s that every time when the fighters come to return a pair of gloves or whatever or even in the fight, it’s peeling off or chipping off and that’s a hazard if it gets in your eye. It’s more about the safety of the fighters, not like, ‘We need more knockouts, change the gloves.’

“It’s more that the logo wasn’t adhering and it doesn’t look professional to have these guys fighting a championship fight and then here’s this guy raising his hand and there’s no UFC logo on the glove. It all gets worn off.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting