Beginner’s Guide: Which Boxing Gloves to Buy

When setting up your home gym or preparing for a boxing or Boxfit class, it’s important to have everything you need, from comfortable shoes and breathable clothing to the right size boxing gloves.

Boxing gloves come in different weights for different purposes and to fit everyone that needs to wear them. There are even different sizes, weights and shapes of gloves for martial arts and kickboxing. So how do you know which kind of boxing gloves are right for you?

Our guide will show every beginner how to choose the best boxing gloves for them and why it’s important to wear them, no matter what part of the training you’re doing.

Why Are Boxing Gloves Different?

Boxing gloves are designed to protect the hands of the boxer, with a thick layer of padding across the knuckles, and the thumb tucked into a fist position. Boxing gloves are sized according to their weight, which refers to the amount of padding used in the glove. Generally, the heavier the person, the heavier the gloves needed, however, each person will need a different type of boxing glove according to what type of boxing training they’re doing.

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

This is the most average weight of glove to weight of a person guide, as training gloves are the most average weighted gloves out of the three main pairs of boxing gloves needed. If you just train with a punching bag at home or in boxing fitness classes, you’ll only need training gloves as above.

Types of Boxing Gloves and Their Uses

There are three main types of boxing gloves:

• Training Gloves
• Sparring Gloves
• Match Gloves

Mixed martial arts gloves are made differently to allow the thumb free for grappling and have equal padding on the palm of the hand as across the knuckles for protection when blocking kicks and strikes. These gloves should only be used in martial arts as they don’t offer sufficient protection in boxing.

Each type of boxing glove has a different purpose.

Training Gloves

Training gloves are the most average-weight pair of boxing gloves you’ll need in your equipment store and are meant for use on punching bags and focus pads. Boxing training is a great workout for your whole body, engaging your arms, shoulders, back, core and legs through your movement around a punching bag and through each strike. So whether you intend to become a fully-fledged boxer, or simply get fit at home, or even have a fun workout with your friends, boxing training is a great exercise.

You should ensure you have the right boxing gloves for your weight when training, however, to ensure your hands are sufficiently protected when striking the bags or focus pads.

Sparring Gloves

Sparring gloves are the thickest padded and therefore heaviest boxing gloves you’ll need. Sparring is the most accurate replica of a fight as you strike an opponent, however, you will both require protective equipment to stay injury-free. Sparring gloves are the heaviest in order to absorb the shock from the punch to protect the knuckles of the wearer as well as the body and head of the sparring partner.

Match Gloves

If you’re just boxing training to get into good shape and not fighting for the sought-after WBC title belt (World Boxing Council), you won’t need a pair of boxing gloves designed for real fights. These are the thinnest and lightest boxing gloves as you want your opponent to feel the full might of your punch in order to achieve a knockout.

Which Gloves Are Needed for Martial Arts?

Boxing gloves aren’t great for use in martial arts as the position of the thumb means some manoeuvres simply aren’t possible. They protect your knuckles so can be useful when training with a punching bag, but in grappling and sparring, martial artists need specialist martial arts equipment.

For martial arts training from home, you can benefit from buying equipment designed for your speciality, such as a Bo Staff for Tae Kwon Do or shin pads for Muay Thai. However, for people training in mixed martial arts, you can greatly benefit from:

• Punching bags
• Grappling dummies
• Protective gear (padded head guards and mouthguards)
• Rubber weapons

It’s best to train with a teacher when you first start to ensure you learn all of the correct techniques and reduce your risk of injury, before training at home with your equipment.

Necessary Equipment for Boxing Training at Home

Training in a gym can be daunting if you don’t have confidence in your athletic ability or simply feel shy in front of others who you deem more experienced than you; gyms can also have expensive membership fees and it can be off-putting to take time out of your day to head down to the gym if it’s a long way from home.

Fortunately, you can buy high-quality boxing equipment for use at home so you can whenever you feel comfortable, or have fun training with a friend to motivate each other to exercise, lose weight, get in shape, or just have a fun activity to do together.

Useful equipment to have at home includes:

• Boxing gloves
• Hand wraps
• A punching bag
• Focus pads

The best punching bags for use at home are heavy bags and free-standing bags, as the other punching bags are more specialised. These allow you to train alone and use your power as well as get in a great amount of cardio.

Focus pads are a great way to train with a friend or partner, as your training partner meets your punches with the pads on each hand, so you both get a workout and can help each other improve shot accuracy, speed and timing of combinations. Focus pads are durable so you can train with them over a long period, and you don’t need to be super fit to get started; start slowly in 1-2 minute rounds and increase the length of time you spend training as you get fitter and your endurance improves. You can even intersperse strength training activities like squats and sit-ups with your focus pad training to help you get fitter.

Just make sure you have plenty of space to train in without knocking over objects and have flexible, breathable clothing to train in comfortably.

Should You Always Wear Boxing Gloves?

It may seem cool enough to show boxers in films or photo shoots hitting the bags without boxing gloves or hand wraps, but whatever type of training you’re doing, you need to wear boxing gloves for your safety and comfort.

If you’re training like a boxer at home, you need to make sure your punching technique is correct before striking the bag by practising shadow boxing, in which case you don’t need to wear boxing gloves as you won’t be striking anything but throwing punches in the air. Once your technique is correct and you begin to add resistance through focus pads or boxing gloves, your wrists and knuckles are vulnerable to injury, so you should wrap them tightly with hand wraps and wear the appropriate training gloves for your weight.

Maxx Pro Boxing – Buy the Best Boxing Gloves

At Maxx Pro Boxing, we pride ourselves on manufacturing the highest quality, professional-standard, affordable boxing equipment so people all over the UK can easily buy their equipment to train safely at home. Our team of combat sport experts have designed each piece of martial arts equipment and boxing equipment especially for purpose, so it’s durable and comfortable for use.

Browse our range of boxing gloves today so you can get training with the best in no time.