Are Boxing Gloves Unisex?

When shopping for new boxing gloves, it can be hard to know what kind to buy. Are the bigger ones for bigger people? Do they offer more protection? Are there male and female boxing gloves?

Fortunately, boxing gloves are unisex so both men and women can use the same kinds of gloves – but you should make sure you choose your boxing gloves according to your size and never borrow a pair from someone significantly bigger, smaller, or more capable than you. Sure, you want to give a boxing session a try before you invest in the necessary equipment, but if you train wearing ill-fitting or old gloves, you can risk an injury that might put you off the sport altogether – and we don’t want that.

So how do you choose the right boxing gloves for your size, and what is the weight of boxing gloves all about? We’re here to help.

Boxing Glove Sizes

Boxing gloves are gender neutral, so men and women can choose the boxing gloves simply according to their weight and what they’ll need them for. Boxing gloves are sized by their weight, from 6 oz to 18 oz; the weight is a reference to how much padding is in the glove. So the heavier the glove, the more padding, thus the more protection.

But it’s not as simple as saying you want to protect yourself best so get the heavier gloves. If your gloves are too heavy, they’ll be cumbersome to use and won’t allow you to reach your full potential when boxing. Equally, if they’re too light, you’ll risk hurting your hands with strong punches and insufficient padding.

So how do you know what size boxing gloves to get? The following size guide will help you find the best boxing gloves to buy for training:

• People under 45 kg need 6 – 8 oz gloves
• People weighing 46 – 68 kg need 10 – 12 oz gloves
• People weighing 69 – 80 kg need 14 oz gloves
• People over 80 kg need 16 – 18 oz gloves

While this is an extremely useful guide when buying boxing gloves for your training sessions, you’ll need a different pair for use when sparring and another pair for use in real fights. But why does that matter?

Why Does the Weight of Boxing Gloves Matter?

Boxing gloves are made with layers of fabric, usually synthetic foam, with the innermost layer the most dense. This helps add weight to the gloves as well as ensuring maximum protection for the weight.

So why not wear the most protective boxing gloves all the time? When you throw a punch in training, your fist (always covered by a boxing glove) makes contact with the boxing equipment, for example, the punching bag. When the contact is made, the power of your punch sends a shockwave through your arm and into the equipment, just as it would if you hit a real person.

This shockwave can cause injury to your knuckles, hand, wrist, shoulder, and neck if not wearing protective equipment, so when training, you’ll want boxing gloves with a good level of padding to serve as a shock-absorbing cushion on your knuckles and prevent injury. But when fighting in the ring for real, you don’t want so much cushion as this will also protect your opponent from feeling the full force of your punch. Thinner gloves may hurt your hands more than thicker gloves, but you’ll increase your chances of beating your opponent if you have thinner gloves when you strike them.

Strength training is an equally important aspect of boxing training as you can increase your muscle strength all over your body to both increase the power behind your punches and strengthen your body to not feel the shockwave so significantly.

So What Are Sparring Gloves?

Sparring gloves are the opposite of fighting gloves; they’re boxing gloves with the largest amount of padding to protect you and your sparring partner. When sparring, you’re practising all your combinations and moves ready for a real fight, but in a training setting where you don’t want to cause your sparring partner an injury – they’re there to help you improve for your match.

Since you’re using your full force but don’t want to knock out your partner, you’ll need extra cushion (even more than when training) to soften your blows.

Women’s Boxing Clothing

If you’re getting ready for your first boxing class and you’re not sure what to wear, the answer is pretty simple. You’ll just need your normal sports clothes: comfortable, breathable, flexible, and no annoying straps that you’ll have to continually adjust or pull up while you’re training. It’s highly unlikely that in your first boxing class, you’ll be sparring with anyone, so while you may be asked to bring your own boxing gloves, you won’t need headgear, mouthguards, or breast protection just yet.

For boxing fitness classes, you’ll never need the protective gear as you won’t be doing any contact boxing, but simply learning the right punching techniques while also doing some strength training exercises and cardio. You’ll just need comfortable sports clothing.

When you get into sparring and fighting, women can benefit from breast protectors, also known as chest guards. A punch to the chest can be very uncomfortable for women at times, but there are no rules against it like there are against punches below the belt for men. That said, it’s not very common to get struck in the chest during a boxing match, as it’s not as impactful as striking your opponent in the head or belly.

Are There Women’s Boxing Gloves?

Some manufacturers do make women’s boxing gloves, but the only difference is that the width of the gloves is slightly smaller to accommodate smaller hands. In most cases, women can wear unisex boxing gloves comfortably, and if they have very small hands for their size, they can simply choose a glove that is slightly lighter than would be normal for their body weight.

Similarly, men with particularly large hands for their size can choose boxing gloves a size bigger than recommended in the above chart to ensure they fit more comfortably. If the boxing gloves are much too tight, or much too big, however, you should look for another pair to suit your hand size more accurately. You want your boxing gloves to be slightly too big so you have enough space to wear hand wraps underneath to give your hands the necessary protection, but if your hand is moving around in the glove even with hand wraps, you need a different pair of boxing gloves that will sufficiently protect your hands.

Either way, women’s and men’s boxing gloves are largely the same, but children should never use adult boxing gloves or other adult boxing equipment, as it will be too large and heavy for them and can put them at a high risk of injury.

When to Buy a New Pair of Boxing Gloves

If your boxing gloves don’t fit properly i.e. you’re wearing your dad’s old pair or borrowing from a friend who’s much bigger or smaller than you, then you definitely need to buy your own boxing gloves. But if you have your own pair and you think it’s time to replace them, look for a few key points to know for sure if you need new boxing gloves:

• Do your hands hurt during or after training?
• Do your boxing gloves smell bad?
• Do your boxing gloves have cracks in the outer material?

If any of these are true, you need to get a new pair – and learn to take better care of your gloves to help them last longer.

To keep your boxing gloves clean you should:

• Wear clean hand wraps each time
• Clean the inside of the gloves with disinfectant after each use
• Let them air dry thoroughly
• Alternate which gloves you use

These steps will help you keep your gloves in good condition for as long as possible.

Buy the Best Boxing Gloves – Maxx Pro Boxing

At Maxx Pro Boxing, we pride ourselves on designing and creating some of the best boxing gloves in Britain. Choose from our range of high-quality yet affordable boxing gloves today, so you can get boxing safely and comfortably in no time.