Luzz Inferno 2 M1 Review: Huge Swing Weight, Both Approvals

Updated October 8, 2026

The more useful finding is about paperwork. The lab page most buyers will read lists this
paddle as UPA-A only and not approved by USA Pickleball. That is wrong. USA Pickleball’s
own approved paddle list shows Inferno2 M1 16mm, manufacturer Luzz, status Pass, dated
06/25/2026. If you were about to skip a $239 paddle because you thought it was illegal at your
local sanctioned tournament, it is not.

We have not played this paddle. What follows synthesizes measurements
published by Pickleball Effect, Pickleball Playbook and PaddleReviewHub, specifications
published by Luzz, and the two governing bodies’ own approved-paddle lists. Each figure is
attributed where it is used, and where the sources disagree the disagreement is the point.

Who this paddle is for

Buy it if your points are won before the ball reaches the kitchen. Pickleball Effect measured
a serve speed of 57.4 MPH, which puts the Inferno 2 M1 in the 98th percentile of its
database for power, and a pop speed of 36.7 MPH, which is only the 72nd. The gap between
those two numbers is the paddle’s whole character. Swing through the ball and it is close
to the hardest-hitting thing you can legally carry; poke at it from the transition zone and it
is unremarkable.

Skip it if your hands are the best part of your game. Pickleball Playbook is direct about
who should walk away: players who need “fast hand speed at the net,” anyone who
prefers a wider face for rapid exchanges, and touch-first players. A 120 swing weight is not a
number you overcome with fitness. It is how much work it takes to get the paddle moving, every
single time, and at the line you do not get a second attempt.

The certification question, and why two sources get it wrong

This is the part worth reading twice, because it is the difference between a paddle you can
enter a tournament with and an expensive practice paddle.

Pickleball Effect’s spec table lists the Inferno2 M1 as approved by UPA-A only, and
says to pass on it if you need USA Pickleball certification. PaddleReviewHub lists it as UPA-A
approved and says its USAP status “requires confirmation.” So two of the three
places a buyer is likely to look leave them believing the paddle is not legal in sanctioned
amateur play.

USA Pickleball’s approved paddle list — the list a tournament desk actually
checks — shows the Luzz Inferno2 M1 16mm with a status of Pass dated 06/25/2026. Separately,
PickleTip’s UPA-A tracker records it as UPA-A approved on 20 July 2026. It cleared both
bodies, and it cleared USA Pickleball first, which is the reverse of the pattern PickleTip has
documented across the industry this year, where brands increasingly take paddles to UPA-A first
because that is what the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball require.

Why this matters in practice: a UPA-A certification does not make a paddle legal in a USA
Pickleball sanctioned event, and the reciprocity runs mostly one way. We wrote about the same
trap from the other side in our review of the
11SIX24 Vapor Jelly
Bean 2, which is UPA-A approved and is not on the USA Pickleball list — the
exact mirror image of what the lab pages claim about this paddle. Our rundown of
delisted and
decertified paddles explains why the two lists diverge.

One piece of brand history belongs here rather than in a footnote. On 31 March 2025 the UPA-A
removed every Luzz paddle from its approved list, after testing showed the Cannon had been
submitted as a cosmetic variation of an already-approved model when it was built and performed
differently. USA Pickleball was not involved and kept Luzz paddles at Pass throughout. Luzz was
then reinstated model by model through 2025 and 2026 as each paddle was resubmitted and tested
on its own. That is a procedural failure rather than a performance one, and the Inferno 2
M1 has been through both bodies’ testing on its own merits since. But it is fair context
for anyone deciding whether to buy into this brand.

What it actually is

A 16 mm elongated paddle on what Luzz calls an MPP2 foam core, with a TPEE return ring
around the perimeter and an integrated silicon carbide grit surface over T700 carbon that the
brand markets as Aero-Black. Handle length is 5.52 in and the grip circumference is
4.13 in. Pickleball Effect classes the build as Gen 4 and rates the grit durability
Tier 3.

Against its predecessor, the change is small and in one direction. Pickleball Playbook
measured the original Luzz Inferno at 7.9 oz, a 118.52 swing weight and a 6.02 twist
weight at $229. The M1 is heavier-swinging, marginally more stable and $10 more. This is an
iteration, not a redesign, and Pickleball Effect’s verdict says as much: buy it if you
liked the original and want more spin and a longer-lasting face, pass if the Pro-4 Inferno
already suits you.

The measurements, and who took them

This is about as tight an agreement as we see. Three benches land inside 1.5 points of swing
weight and 0.17 of twist weight, and the brand’s own tolerance band covers all of them.
Two caveats keep it honest. PaddleReviewHub does not state whether those are its own lab
measurements, and says its spin figure is a peer-band estimate rather than a reading, so we
treat Pickleball Effect and Pickleball Playbook as the measured pair. And Pickleball
Playbook’s 6.31 twist weight is the outlier of the three — a small gap, but it is
the difference between calling this paddle average for stability and slightly below it.

For scale, Pickleball Playbook’s own database averages sit at a 114 swing weight and a
6.24 twist weight. So the Inferno 2 M1 is about six points heavier-swinging than a typical
paddle and dead average for forgiveness. If those two numbers do not mean anything to you yet,
our guide to
swing weight and
twist weight is the shortest useful explanation we know how to write.

What a 120 swing weight actually costs

A heavy swing weight buys plow-through on drives and costs you time at the net, and the
trade is not linear — it gets worse the faster the exchange. At 4.7 the balls that punish
a slow paddle are not the hard ones, which you are already braced for; they are the chest-high
flicks that arrive while you are still resetting your paddle from the last shot. That is the
specific moment a 120 swing weight shows up, and no amount of wanting more power makes it go
away.

For comparison inside our own recent coverage: the
Proton Project Coyote
sits at 116.8, the Six
Zero Boulder Opal at 116, and the
Pickleball Apes Zen
S+ down at 107. The Inferno 2 M1 is the second-heaviest swinger we have written up this
month. Only the Vatic Prism in its V7 shape, at 128, asks more of your arm — and that one
costs $99.99.

The spin number and the October standard

Pickleball Effect measured 2,168 RPM on its own rig and calls that very high. Two things
about that figure, both of which get mangled elsewhere.

First, a third-party rig is not USA Pickleball’s certification protocol. Different
ball, different swing conditions, different equipment. The numbers are useful for ranking
paddles against each other on the same rig and useless for predicting a certification outcome.

Second, USA Pickleball’s PaddleVision spin test takes effect on 1 October 2026 with a
2,100 RPM limit, and paddles certified before that date remain compliant under the
standards in force when they were certified. The Inferno 2 M1 passed on 25 June 2026, so it
sits on the grandfathered side of that line. Anyone telling you otherwise is reading a
third-party spin figure as though it were a compliance test.

The M2 is not the cheaper version of this paddle

Luzz also sells an Inferno2 M2 — a 16 mm hybrid, 7.94 oz, a 110 swing weight
and a 5.31 in handle, at $149. On paper it reads like the sensible pick: the same family,
ninety dollars less, and a swing weight you can actually live with at the net.

It is not certified, and it is not going to be. Luzz’s own product page states the M2
reached 398 of the 500 backers its crowdfunding campaign needed, and that the model will
therefore not enter USAP or UPA certification. That makes it a recreational paddle only. If you
play league or tournament pickleball, the M2 is not an alternative to the M1 at any price, and
the brand deserves credit for saying so plainly on the listing rather than leaving buyers to
find out at a check-in desk.

Two alternatives, and who each is for

11SIX24 Vapor Jelly Bean 2, $169.99 — if you want the same power class with
more forgiveness. The PPA Paddle Lab measured it at a 119.9 swing weight, nearly
identical to the Inferno 2 M1, but with a 6.66 twist weight against 6.14–6.31, which
is a meaningful step up in off-centre stability, and it is a hybrid rather than an elongated so
it is less unwieldy at the line. The catch is the one this whole article is about, running the
other way: it is UPA-A approved and not on the USA Pickleball list, so it is the wrong paddle
if you enter sanctioned amateur events. Our
full Jelly Bean 2
review has the numbers.

Vatic Prism in the V7 shape, $99.99 — if the swing weight is the point.
Pickleball Effect measured the Prism V7 at a 128 swing weight with a 6.96 twist weight and
judged it to play nearly identically to a $220 paddle. If what you actually want is an elongated
paddle you can lean on, this one is heavier-swinging, more stable and less than half the price.
It is a plainer build with none of the foam-core engineering, and that is most of what your
extra $139 is buying. Our Vatic V7
coverage explains why the standalone V7 no longer exists as its own paddle.

Price and availability

List is $239 direct from Luzz. Pickleball Playbook and PaddleReviewHub both quote $203.15
with their own 15% codes, which is the same discount from the same list price by two different
routes. Spinwave carries it at $239 and currently shows it sold out, which is worth knowing
before you plan around a code: the constraint on this paddle right now is supply, not price.
Treat $203–$239 as the real band and do not assume a code is live the week you buy.

Luzz is also the brand behind the Chris Haworth signature Glider, which is a reasonable
signal about where the company is aiming — Haworth is the dominant men’s singles
player in 2026 — though a sponsorship tells you nothing about how a paddle measures.

The verdict

The Inferno 2 M1 is a specialist and it is honest about being one. Three benches agree
on what it is: a 120 swing weight elongated paddle with 98th-percentile drive power, average
forgiveness, and enough spin to be competitive without leading the category. At $239 it is
priced above the Jelly Bean 2 and more than twice the Prism, and what you are paying for is the
foam core and the grit durability rather than a number nobody else can match. If you drive for a
living and your hands are already fast enough, it earns the money.

The thing we would fix is not the paddle. It is that the most-read lab page on the internet
tells you it is illegal in USA Pickleball play when the governing body’s own list says it
passed in June. Check the list yourself before you let a spec table make a $239 decision for
you.

Don’t buy this if you get beaten at the net more than you get beaten
off the drive, if you need a wider face for hand battles, or if you were considering the M2 as
the budget version — that one cannot be used in sanctioned play at all.

Check current Luzz listings on Amazon, buy direct from
Luzz,
or check stock at Spinwave. If pace rather than stability is what your game is short of, our
power paddle
rankings explain why three benches each name a different paddle as the most powerful.

Every figure above comes from the source named beside it. For how we source and evaluate gear
without buying every paddle on the market, see
how we evaluate gear.

How we review gear — including how we get the paddles we test and what the money never touches — is documented in our review methodology.