Fans cry out loud for change of gloves after Sean Strickland shows graphic photo of 'missing small chunk of eye' - "There's no excuse for this"

Last Saturday, Sean Strickland walked away with an impressive win, a $50,000 bonus, a lot of praise, and a badly injured eye! When MMA fans came across a close-up shot of Strickland’s eye on Reddit, cries for change in UFC gloves’ design rose again.

UFC middleweight contender Sean Strickland went up against highly touted German fighter Abus Magomedov in the main event of UFC Vegas 76. Strickland started out slow and allowed Magomedov to take control of the fight in the first round. Magomedov landed quite a few solid shots on Strickland in the opening stanza. However, his striking attempts also led to 'Tarzan' getting badly poked in the eye.

Sean Strickland managed to pull off a TKO win in the second round but the damage to the eye was done. He posted a photo of the injured eye on his Instagram story with the caption:

“Does the eyeball grow back? This is a new one"

Sean Strickland missing a small chunk of eye from Saturdays main event by u/Willb000g in ufc

The photo went viral on Reddit and MMA fans voiced their critical opinions about the design of UFC gloves, which forces fighters to keep an open palm instead of a clenched fist.

This results in a disproportionately large number of eye pokes in the UFC as compared to other MMA organizations, with the latest examples being Sean Strickland and Justin Tafa. The UFC has progressed by leaps and bounds over the last two decades. Why its glove design hasn’t evolved with time is a mystery though.

MMA Reddit expressed its critical opinion about the gloves' design for causing eye pokes. Here are some of the comments on Sean Strickland's eye photo

“They need to switch the f***ing gloves, there's no excuse for this,” Infernal-Blaze wrote.

“I was thinking the same thing after watching this and that heavyweight fight the week before that ended in like the first 30 seconds. Dana’s a fool if he doesn’t try and save the fights and protect his fighters by investing in a better glove design,” SergeTheMerge commented.

“Not worth it. There's like 3 eye pokes per event these days,” True_Ostrich7653 commented.

“What would it take for the UFC to change the f***ing gloves? A fighter need to have his eye pop out and the clip go viral? It's crazy the gloves are the same since 1996,” EOVA94 questioned.

Eye pokes are probably the worst form of foul as they have the potential to change the course of a fight by impairing a crucial sense like vision. TheOneReborn69 called for a strict point deduction for eye pokes and wrote

“Eye pokes need to be a mandatory point reduction. A lot of fighters will go for the poke because they know it will just be a warning.”

Yoyoyowhoisthis pointed out the vicious nature of the fighting profession and wrote:

“Not only they are getting lifelong concussions for 12k/12k + hair saloon coupons, but they are also risking losing their eyesight completely. They are indeed modern day gladiators, just for the "slavery" part lmao.”

Renowned MMA coach Trevor Wittman, who has trained elite fighters like Kamaru Usman, Justin Gaethje, Rose Namajunas, and Shane Carwin, has come up with a glove design that could solve the problems. However, the UFC does not seem to be keen on adapting his glove design. Fizan786 called for this change and wrote:

“Please just throw Trevor Wittman a check and incorporate his gloves, if they as good as he/people say they are then worth investing into for your athletes.”

“Gloves are fine. Just start enforcing the fu*king rules guys. Eye poke? Point. Fence grab? Point. Dick twist? Point,” boopsnscoots wrote.

“Change the gloves or start taking off points for extending fingers,” NUmbermass commented.

“They wont until they get the full ownership of someone's hard work. Someone already made gloves that make this very rare and presented them to the UFC and the UFC is like sure. Give us the ownership and we will use them,” xavierpenn claimed.

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"I almost got pregnant!" Sean Strickland on getting poked in the eye

Sean Strickland is one of UFC's most unpredictable and outspoken fighters. He has been attacked for making controversial statements in the past. Therefore it wasn't surprising when the 32-year-old fighter made outlandish but hilarious statements on the eye poke during the post-fight interview.

When former UFC champion and commentator Michael Bisping mentioned the eye pokes in Sean Strickland's fight against Abus Magomedov, this is what 'Tarzan' had to say:

"Ah, man! I almost got pregnant off that one! It was pretty deep you guys. There's a coward in me. There was a coward in me that said, 'why don't we just stop this?'"

Watch Sean Strickland make the statement at the 1:26 mark of the video below:

Sean Strickland is gunning for a title shot against UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya next. It will be interesting to see how the events unfold.