White Reveals Glove Deal Collapsed Over $100 Million Price Tag

Dana White has explained why the UFC never switched to a glove designed to prevent eye pokes — and the number involved was not small.

The UFC CEO revealed that Trevor Wittman's ONX Sports gloves, engineered specifically to reduce the likelihood of eye pokes, were the subject of serious internal discussions that ultimately collapsed over price. White had instructed his finance team to pursue a deal regardless of cost. Then the number came back.

"They wanted like 100 million dollars for the glove. You know how many gloves you gotta sell to make 100 million dollars? It's impossible. So the deal never happened," White

The revelation adds context to one of the sport's most persistent problems. Eye pokes have altered the outcomes of significant fights throughout UFC history, and the issue reached a particularly visible moment at UFC 321 last October when Ciryl Gane accidentally poked Tom Aspinall during their heavyweight title fight, ending the contest as a no-contest and sending the British champion into surgery for bilateral Brown's syndrome. Aspinall has been sidelined ever since.

The $100 million asking price ended that conversation. White acknowledged the deal should have been finalised years ago and left the door open with a non-committal "we'll see" — while making clear that a resolution was unlikely at the numbers being discussed.