Choosing the right pair of Boxing Gloves

You won’t be able to fight with broken hands.

The primary function of boxing gloves is to protect your hands. The harder you punch, the more force is being transmitted through your knuckles and into the small carpal and metacarpal bones in your wrist. Professional boxers punch extremely hard and tend to get a lot of hand injuries, resulting from damage to their bones in their hands. The most obvious and effective way to mitigate hand injuries in boxing is to wear a pair of gloves that suits your needs.

Boxing gloves alone aren’t enough to protect your hands from your own punching power. You should also carefully wrap your hands using specific boxing hand wraps. Most fighters have their own idiosyncratic methods for wrapping their hand which involves not only scientific expertise but also elements of tradition and even superstition. The gloves should fit your hands snugly whilst wearing hand wraps underneath the gloves.

Different brands have different sized padding, so it’s always beneficial to try on the gloves before you buy them. Everlast gloves typically have thicker padding, and therefore offer better hand protection. Celto Reyes gloves traditionally have more compact padding, and so are less good at protecting your hands. However when it comes to actually fighting, the compact padding is more damaging to your opponent. But with compact padding, you also increase your risk of injury to your hands.

Bag mitts – the lightweight cheap gloves which offer almost no protection are definitely to be avoided. They are simply not designed for people who can actually punch. Proper boxing gloves are distinguished by their weight, most commonly in 2oz increments from 8oz up to 20oz. Heavier; larger gloves contain more padding within them to protect your hands. However heavier gloves will reduce the speed at which you can punch. The trick is to get the right balance between adequate protection and speed. The padding is typically made from either horse hair, foam or a combination of both. Floyd Mayweather usually wears 10oz foam padded Grant Boxing gloves.

Velcro gloves are a lot easier to put on and take off than lace-ups, and the velcro gives added wrist protection. It’s important to get a pair of gloves which have a thumb retainer – a little bit of stitching to keep the thumb close to the index finger. This reduces the risk of thumb injury to yourself should the thumb get caught whilst throwing a punch. Also it reduces the risk of injury to your opponent, so they can’t get poked in the eye by your thumb.

Its much better to buy boxing gloves from a sports shop rather than ordering them online, as you will be able to try them on and inspect the padding for yourself. When it comes to training, it’s better to use a pair of gloves about 2 - 4oz heavier than in a fight. The heavier gloves offer better protection for your hands during training, and your hand speed will be faster when it comes to actually fighting.