We have heard many criticisms of the UFC gloves before, but this one’s a first. Are these gloves designed to prevent eye pokes? No. Does stiffness force fighters to open their hands from time to time and close their fists with additional effort? Yes. Did the new gloves from 2024 miserably fail, forcing the promotion to go back to the old ones? Also yes. But this latest goof-up from UFC Seattle is one for the ages.

Ariel Helwani, during his latest episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, received an unusual text from UFC’s women’s flyweight Casey O’Neill. The Australian fought Gabriella Fernandes on Saturday, securing a spectacular first-round knockout finish. And she had an interesting story to tell. Naturally, Helwani’s inquisitive mind wanted to make it a part of his show, asking O’Neill to describe it on her own.

“When I got out the back to take my photos, we realized that both of my gloves were left-handed gloves,” O’Neill told Helwani during the interview. “So I somehow fought in two left-handed gloves.

When asked how that could even happen, O’Neill claimed she isn’t aware of it.

“I don’t know. They said it’s never happened before because they usually come pre-packaged. So I guess that might be my new thing now. I’m going to fight [with] two left-handed gloves every time.”

If both gloves were for the left hand, the one worn on the right would sit awkwardly—essentially backwards. With UFC gloves, the thumb wouldn’t even align properly; it couldn’t fit through what would be the pinky opening on a left-hand glove. When Ariel Helwani pointed that out, O’Neill had no real explanation for just how bizarre the whole situation was.

“I had no idea. I hadn’t fought in a long time, remember? We just put them on, and we went out there and… then when we got out of the back, we realized. Nobody messed up, but it made me win better, so we’re okay with it.”

With the performance O’Neill presented, Helwani suggested she should continue fighting in two left-handed gloves, something the Australian didn’t have any issues with. Helwani proposed O’Neill could enter the gloves into the UFC Hall of Fame for the first-ever fight fought in two left-handed gloves.

“Well, I’ve kept them, so I can,” she claimed.

O’Neill’s latest win came since her decision win over Luana Santos in August 2024, where she bounced back from her second career loss to Ariane Lipski da Silva in December 2023. She has claimed that Winter Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu kept her motivated and inspired her to make a strong comeback, but the question is, why was the 19-month-long hiatus necessary?

Casey O’Neill recounts a devastating injury that nearly ended her UFC career

The Aussie didn’t just deal with a routine setback. She endured a catastrophic injury that nearly ended her career. Speaking about the moment, she recalled how everything went wrong at once. She was booked to fight on a Sydney card in January 2025, but on January 8, she blew her knee out completely.

“ACL, MCL, LCL, my medial meniscus, lateral meniscus, and I fractured my tibia all in one go,” she told Ariel Helwani.

O’Neill had suffered an injury in her other knee in the past, which made it difficult to process her new injury.

“Even when it happened, I was sort of like, nah, this isn’t real,” she said. “There’s no way that this happens to me twice.”

What followed was an even tougher battle. O’Neill revealed that recovery tested her mentally as much as physically. She had to spend three months in crutches and couldn’t even put any weight on the knee, which made things even more difficult. But like the fighter she is, O’Neill pulled through, especially since it wasn’t just rehab—it was a fight to keep her career alive.

Casey O’Neill didn’t just pull through after injury; if her claims about the gloves are to be believed, she made her comeback to the UFC in highly unprecedented circumstances. With all that, she even scored a knockout, which is very impressive. But what do you make of the two left-handed gloves claim?