UFC reopens talks on Trevor Wittman’s eye-poke-reducing gloves, $100 million ask still the obstacle

Wittman showcasing the gloves on The Joe Rogan Experience. The design, marketed through his ONX Sports brand, is built around a pre-curved shape that holds the hand in a closed fist position by default.

The UFC has reopened discussions with trainer Trevor Wittman about adopting his anti-eyepoke gloves, though the wider press cycle around the talks has put the financial sticking point on the public record for the first time.

Wittman, appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience alongside lightweight champion Justin Gaethje on Friday, confirmed UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell reached out to restart the conversation. “Hunter reached out to me three weeks ago, four weeks ago, and said he wanted to ignite the conversation again,” Wittman told Rogan. “So we’ll see where that goes.”

Dana White followed up at the UFC Vegas 119 post-fight press conference Saturday night, confirming the years of prior talks and explaining why no deal had been signed. “We’ve been talking to Trevor for years,” White said. “Rashad Evans, whom I love and respect, came to me and said, ‘Hey, listen, I’m invested in this thing. We think that we have a great product here. And I would love to introduce our glove to the Trevor built.’ So we looked at it. I literally told my finance team, ‘Get this deal done. Don’t care what it takes.'”

Then came the number.

“They wanted like $100 million for the gloves,” White said. “How many fucking gloves do you have to sell to make $100 million? It’s impossible. So the deal never happened.” The original conversation, per Yahoo Sports and other outlets, fell through over UFC wanting to own the glove design outright rather than license it.

The renewed talks come amid mounting public pressure. Joe Rogan, speaking on the same podcast appearance, called the absence of the ONX gloves from UFC competition “criminal,” saying “this is so superior to the UFC gloves. The fact that this isn’t being used by the UFC right now is fucking criminal.” Daniel Cormier has publicly argued that curved gloves would address the eye-poke problem more effectively than warnings or point deductions. Active fighters including Sean Brady have endorsed the design on Rogan’s show in the past.

The timing is not incidental. Eye pokes have remained one of the sport’s most stubborn officiating and equipment problems, and the issue arrived at the door of the heavyweight title in October. Tom Aspinall has not fought since UFC 321 on October 25, 2025. His first official heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane was waved off as a no-contest after Gane’s outstretched fingers caught both of Aspinall’s eyes in the opening round. Aspinall later underwent double eye surgery and was diagnosed with bilateral traumatic Brown’s syndrome and a possible orbital wall fracture. His treating doctor advised against a return until the resulting double vision fully resolves.

More recently, Rose Namajunas required medical treatment after an eye poke during her fight with Natalia Silva and publicly called for stricter rules. The pile of fighter complaints has not gone away.

Wittman’s design, marketed through his ONX Sports brand, is built around a pre-curved shape that holds the hand in a closed fist position by default. The intent is straightforward: if the fingers don’t extend naturally inside the glove, they’re less likely to find an opponent’s eye when a fighter pushes a hand out to measure distance or post off a clinch. Gaethje, on the same podcast, explained the mechanism from a fighter’s perspective. “When I’m relaxed and if my hand can be in this closed position when I’m relaxed, then I’m okay. Then there’s not going to be as many eye pokes. But when I relax and it goes open, you’re never going to take the human reaction and instinct away to protect yourself. The instinct to protect yourself is fingers out.”

There is recent precedent for caution on changes. The UFC introduced a redesigned glove in June 2025 in an effort to reduce eye pokes and improve hand support. The rollout went poorly. Sean Strickland publicly criticised both the gloves and the people who designed them. More notably, knockout rates dropped roughly 10 percent during the period the new gloves were in use. The promotion reverted to the original design within months.

Gaethje also told Rogan the gloves he wore at UFC Freedom 250 felt different from the standard issue. “The gloves I fought in this week were different. The leather was different. It was a little bit thicker, I think, and so it was softer. And so every time I’ve ever fought, I’ve had the most excruciating pain in between my hands right here, and I didn’t feel that at all this fight.” Whether that was deliberate experimentation for the White House card or a one-off production batch has not been clarified by the UFC.

Glove approval in mixed martial arts is also not solely a promotional decision. State athletic commissions, including the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the California State Athletic Commission, have a role in sanctioning equipment used on their cards. A wholesale change to a curved glove would require regulatory sign-off in every jurisdiction the UFC operates in, alongside manufacturing scale and uniform sizing standards across hundreds of contracted fighters.

Wittman, who coaches Gaethje, Kamaru Usman, and Cory Sandhagen, has spent years iterating on the glove. He has publicly demonstrated prototypes at media appearances and on his own channels, arguing the curved mold solves a structural issue that rule changes alone cannot address. On Rogan’s show he also signalled he was no longer running the business side of negotiations himself: “I stepped away from the business part. I’m the visionary now. I’ve got my people who know how to make deals. The UFC’s going to be happy.”

White closed his remarks with a softer note. The old deal “should have been done a few years ago,” he said. “So, we’ll see.”

Whether Campbell’s outreach produces a formal pilot or another round of internal review is unclear. The reopened conversation is exploratory rather than a commitment to adoption, and the $100 million figure White attached to the previous attempt has not been publicly revised by either side.

For Aspinall, the practical question is when his vision clears enough for a medical clearance. For the division behind him, the heavyweight picture remains paused. For the glove conversation, the meeting is a starting point rather than a result.