Gloves - Opinions please

BoxerBrawler

Good morning!
I am picking up a new pair of gloves for Muay Thai and am wondering if anyone has an opinion on any particular brand? Right now I have a great pair of Venum, they are vicious! I love them but they're starting to suffer a little wear and tear. I am looking for something a little more compact. I need to stick to 16 oz. but want something lightening fast. Any recommendations, thoughts, opinions are appreciated. Thanks!

ttippie2000

It depends on how you're training. If you are one of those boxers who does the equivalent of sitting on the edge of the bed and talking about how good it's gonna be, then save your money and buy some Everlast.

I am going to assume that you are not one of those people and address my comments as follows:

Feel. It's hard to explain what to look for when trying on gloves. You want to make a tight fist and then press with your thumb hard on the striking surface. If there is not good protection along the entirety of the striking surface, particularly your knuckles, then no. Good protection isn't necessarily the amount of padding (you're not driving a couch) but rather the ability of the padding to absorb and distribute the stress of a hard hit (test it on a bag). On a continuum between 'pillow' and wrestling matt, good gloves tend to feel more like a wrestling mat. Kinda. It's hard to explain.

Fit. Fit is actually quite important and a highly personal thing. If it is too loose you'll have no trouble getting it on and off, but it won't protect your wrist from torsional stresses very well. If it is too tight you'll be hating life once you get your hand-wraps on and will have difficulty getting them on. The gloves that work for me (I'm a heavyweight with large hands) may not work at all for you. When in doubt, talk to a fighter or a coach with fight experience. And, no, (cough) cardio-kickboxing instructors do not qualify. For sure you want to get gloves in which the thumb is attached to the rest of the glove (unless you're a pro who is concerned with learning all the illegal stuff.)

Don't wear MMA gloves while training Muay Thai or boxing. (Protecting your hands for MMA is a whole separate conversation.) They won't give you the protection you need from the stresses you'll be incurring. Rather, get some good boxing or Muay Thai gloves. And (IMPORTANT) get some long, stretchy hand wraps (e.g., Ringside 180 cm Mexican-style) and learn to wrap your hands. If your Muay Thai coach doesn't have time to show you how to wrap your hands then you can look it up on YouTube. If you're boxing 3 or more days a week you might also like to put gel-based knuckle protectors under your hand wraps. Title makes some good ones, and I have found them to be life-savers.

Glove style. There is more than one. As far as trainers go, I like the ones with a hook-and-loop attachment with Velcro as lace-ups take too much time to deal with (and time-to-first-aid is important if you take a hard shot and go down). Venum, Boon, Habayusa and Fighter all make solid trainers. I know fighters that swear by each and believe it to be a personal preference.

Some Muay Thai people like the Muay Thai-type gloves sold for example by Fairtex, Twins, Windy. They're durable and have a bit more padding in the wrist and back of the hand. This can be of slight marginal benefit if you are dealing with someone who kicks hard (but NO glove with protect you from poor blocking technique). MT gloves also have a bit more flexibility in the palm because in Muay Thai you have open-hand skills where you need to grab and grapple an opponent as well as parry kicks. Most vendors have copied the Fairtex design.

Some people go for more boxing-type gloves (I happen to be in that category). Even within a straight boxing type of glove there are a couple of sub-types: trainers, fighting gloves, and Mexican-style fighting gloves. I like the higher price/quality ratio by Cleto Reyes' trainers. They have excellent craftsmanship, hand protection and durability, but at $180 per pair they're not for everybody. Cleto Reyes also makes another style, Mexican-style competition gloves, which are not what you need for trainers.

Brands that are just...no. Everlast. Not if you actually have to use them. Ringside. They have the look, feel and price of good gloves, but they wear out fast. It's the lining on the inside that is made cheaply. Title is a tougher call. They make some very good gloves that hold up well, but their wide selection is based in part on non-functional style clutter. Avoid boxing gloves that put seams directly on the striking surface (good for neither your gloves or your partner's face).

Finally, if you are made of money, Winning brand. They're very expensive but awesome. At $425+ per pair, they're kind of like Stradivarius.

T

Out_of_Bubblegum

Great write-up! I come from a style where gloves pads, although not exactly frowned upon (since they are required to keep our insurance!), are kept to a bare minimum (and some higher ranks go without when permissible).. so I had no idea there was so much involved in the design of boxing gloves!