KO Crisis? Knockouts Drop 10% After New Gloves Debut
Yesterday at 09:04 AM
Knockouts are down and decisions are up since the UFC started using a new glove design at the start of June 2024.
No, it's not just your imagination: there have been more decisions and less knockouts on UFC cards over the past six months, and the drop in KOs tracks with the debut of the UFC's new gloves.
The UFC officially unveiled their completely redesigned new fight gloves back in April 2024, with the gear making their official debut at UFC 302. It didn't take long for speculation to grow that maybe the new lighter mitt might be taking some pep off the punches of fighters after we saw just eight proper knockouts in the four events and 48 bouts that followed.
It got to the point where UFC CEO Dana White admitted promotional brass was getting concerned.
"Let me tell you what, me and [Hunter Campbell] were looking at each other like, 'Are these gloves fu—ked up?'" he said after UFC 303. "Believe me, we were saying the same thing. You guys had us wondering, too ... I don't know. I think it's just a coincidence. Hopefully."
Since switching to the new gloves on UFC 302 (June of 2024) we've seen a significant increase in decisions and decrease in knockouts
— hayjive (@hayjivepicks) October 10, 2024
Since May 2024: 60.3% Dec 22.9% KO
To summarize: since switching to the new gloves, UFC fights have seen an 11.5 % increase in fights going to decision compared to the prior 3 year average, and a 10% decrease in fights ending by knockout compared to the prior 3 year average.
— hayjive (@hayjivepicks) October 10, 2024
Now we have data for the last four months (care of X user Hayjive) that suggests it may not be a coincidence.
That data shows that knockout rates have been fairly reliable over the past three years, sitting between 31.4% and 33.9% for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023. The first six months of 2024 tracked with that, yielding a 32.4% knockout rate across 207 fights.
But once the new gloves were introduced on June 1st, the knockout percentage dropped to 22.9% across 179 fights. That's almost a 10% drop in knockouts!
Now, we're the first to say correlation does not equal causation. This could be a sign that new talent is finding it harder to score knockouts at the highest level of the sport. But for all the discussion surrounding Contender Series flooding the promotion with green prospects, the show has been netting around 40 contracts per season since 2020. You'd expect to see the KO rate drop to be visible earlier if that was the cause.
As it stands now, the big notable change is the gloves. It's still too early to say anything for sure, but we'll keep tracking this trend and see where we're at once 2025 rolls around before making any solid conclusions.
