No hands were broken in Bellator since advent of new glove
Bellator season 8 has 11 events and eight broken hands. Season 9 had 11 events and seven broken hands. In the nine events with the new gloves, no hands broke.
The longest fight on record took place near Fiery Creek, Victoria, Australia, on December 3, 1855. James Kelly and Jonathan Smith fought for 6 hours and 15 minutes, before Smith finally gave in.
The bout was bareknuckle. The reason it could go on for so long is not that without tape and a glove, you can hit that hard with a bare fist, or it will break. Fighters employed a style termed “stand up” in which palms were kept in and both hands were used to jab, with palms in or up.
Once gloves and wraps were employed, fighters began to turn their punches over, set down, turn their hips in, and otherwise get their entire body behind a shot. However, the entire body weight still has to get transferred through the chicken bones that make up the human hand.
Broken hands are a frequent and deeply unfortunate occurrence in mixed martial arts.
On Feb 28, Bellator debuted the PowerLock MMA Fight Glove, designed to lessen injuries to the face, eyes, hand, and wrist. Changes include:
•Curved striking surface that aides proper hand form and avoids eye pokes;
•Re-designed foam to maximize hand protection on the impact zone; and,
•Additional padding that shields the first and fifth metacarpals, two commonly injured bones of the hand.
The glove got off to an inauspicious beginning, as 18 seconds into the second fight to ever use the PowerLock, Josh Diekman reached out and caught Manny Laragot in the eye, leading to the bout being declared NC.
However, now two months, nine events, and countless camps into the use of the glove, Bellator has sent out a press release with some remarkable data.
Via press release.
Since the new gloves debuted at Bellator 110, Bellator has held nine events and experienced zero hand breaks inside the Bellator cage. By way of comparison, Bellator Season 8 saw eleven events using the old glove design, and included eight broken hands during the season, including welterweight champion Douglas Lima and lightweight standouts Saad Awad and Alexander Sarnavskiy. Bellator’s ninth season also featured eleven events, and saw seven fighters suffer breaks, including Herman Terrado, Joe Taimanglo and once again, Douglas Lima.
I guess I hit too hard, because I’ve broken my right hand three times, and I didn’t think it was ever going to end, Lima said. When I put on these new gloves for my recent title fight, I already felt better. I could tell it was going to add more protection and felt like it was designed just for me. It put me more at ease, and I walked out of that fight with the belt around my waist and my hands felt great. The Bellator team did a great job with these new gloves, and I’m so happy I get to keep wearing them every time I walk into the cage.
