What Size Boxing Gloves Do I Need?

By Kasim Javed Boxing Gloves

Your friend has just started boxing, and they’re glowing. Feeling better, looking healthier, and you think that maybe you’d like to start boxing training as well. But what size gloves do you need? What does the ounce of the boxing gloves mean and which ones are the right ones for you?

It’s understandable to get confused when looking to buy boxing gloves for the first time, but it’s actually a lot simpler than you might think. Although there’s no direct answer to the question ‘What size boxing gloves do I need?’, it’s easy to work out once you’ve considered a few different factors. So, let’s get into it.

Why You Need the Right Size Boxing Gloves

Boxing gloves were made compulsory for the safety of the fighters – both for those wearing them and those facing the punches – as bare-knuckle boxing can result in serious injuries including fractures, breaks, sprains and disfigurement. But you can’t just wear any size of boxing gloves, as wearing the wrong size can also result in injury. Of course, having padding on your knuckles is better than not having any at all, but there can still be consequences of wearing gloves that don’t fit properly.

If the gloves are too big, your hand can move around within the glove, and you can pick up an injury from twisting your bones, muscles or ligaments in your hand in an unnatural way. In the same way, boxing gloves that are too small restrict the movement of your hand and prevent necessary flexion which may also result in injury.

When buying boxing gloves, you need to look for the right size for your safety and comfort while training. They should be a little loose on your bare hand as you’ll need to put hand wraps underneath.

Why You Need Hand Wraps

While boxing gloves have padding for protection – more padding, the heavier the glove and the more protection – hand wraps keep all of the small bones in place in your hand so even after striking an opponent or punching bag with a hefty punch, everything in your hand stays in its place.

Just like wearing an elastic support when you’ve sprained your ankle to help you keep moving without limping or twisting it further, hand wraps support your fingers, hand and wrist to prevent injury.

How to Choose the Right Size Boxing Gloves

Choosing the right size boxing gloves for men is relatively easy as boxing gloves are unisex but mainly designed for men’s hands. Women can use most boxing gloves, but if you have particularly small hands for your weight, you may benefit from boxing gloves made especially for women.

Boxing gloves are sized by weight in ounces (oz), not by large, medium and small, so you need to consider firstly:

how much you weigh
what boxing activities you’ll be doing

Your weight matters because with the right punching technique, your power is generated in your lower body, moves up through your body into your arm and is expelled by your fist. The heavier the person, the harder the punch. Boxing gloves don’t make you punch harder, but rather protect your hand from the impact.

The weight of boxing gloves changes according to the amount of material padding within the glove. Therefore, lighter gloves make your punch more impactful, while heavier gloves protect your hand and your opponent, by softening the blow. This is why the weight of the glove also changes according to what boxing activity you’ll be doing.

Different Boxing Gloves for Different Purposes

It’s not just the weight of the person that affects what boxing gloves to buy, but also what type of boxing training will be done. Professional boxers and people who train in boxing regularly will need three types of boxing gloves:

for sparring
for training
for fighting

Each glove needs to be a different weight to fulfil its purpose. Sparring gloves should be the heaviest as more padding is required to protect you and your opponent from your punches. Sparring is the most accurate simulation of a real fight, so you’ll be punching your partner hard. But since it’s for practice and you don’t really want to injure or knock out your sparring partner, you’ll need a thick cushion to absorb the impact of your punch and protect your knuckles and their body.

Training with punching bags and focus pads requires much less padding than sparring as you don’t need to protect the bags, you only need the padding for your knuckles. Training gloves are the most average pair of boxing gloves you’ll need, so if you don’t intend to spar or have any real boxing matches, you can simply buy a pair of gloves corresponding to your weight.

The following guide is accurate for most people to choose the right weight boxing gloves for training:

6 – 8 oz gloves for people under 45 kg
10 – 12 oz gloves for people between 46 and 68 kg
14 oz gloves for people between 69 and 80 kg
16 – 18 oz gloves for people over 80 kg

If you weigh 80 kg and aren’t sure whether to get 14 or 16 oz boxing gloves, you can choose lighter gloves if you are strong and box regularly, or the heavier option if you are just starting.

For real matches, you’ll need the lightest gloves. Most professionals, even heavyweights, use 10 oz gloves for real fights, as the less padding makes their opponent feel the might of their punch more, and increases the chances of achieving a knockout.

Boxing Gloves for Beginners

Beginners looking for boxing gloves can follow the same size guide as any boxer, as the important thing is having enough protection on your hands according to your weight. But if you’re just starting boxing for the health benefits and have no interest in boxing regularly or sparring, you can just buy a pair according to the above size guide.

If you’re starting boxing fitness classes, like Boxfit or Boxercise, you can also buy a pair for training, as you won’t be sparring or doing intense boxing routines, but rather a combination of strength training activities and boxing workouts on punching bags or with a partner holding focus pads.

Children who are beginning to box for the first time should have boxing gloves especially made for children, as their small hands will be too small for adult boxing gloves, regardless of their weight. From around 10 years of age, children can start using 6 oz boxing gloves.

Boxing Gloves and Hand Size

If you have particularly small or large hands for your size or weight, or you’ve tried on a friend’s pair of gloves and they don’t fit comfortably, then you may need to measure the circumference of your hand to get a better idea of what size boxing gloves to wear.

Take a cloth tape measure or a piece of string and wrap it around the palm of your hand, above your thumb knuckle and below your finger knuckles to get the measurement of your hand circumference.

You can then choose your boxing gloves accordingly:

6 – 8 oz gloves for 5.5 – 6.5” hand circumference
10 – 12 oz gloves for 6.5 – 7.5” hand circumference
14 oz gloves for 7.5 – 8.5” hand circumference
16 – 18 oz gloves for 8.5 – 9.5″ hand circumference

If you weigh 65 kg and have an 8” hand circumference, for example, you can choose either 12 or 14 oz boxing gloves. But it may be better to choose the larger gloves in your case, or simply find 12 oz XL gloves from a specialised boxing manufacturer if you’re boxing regularly or professionally.

Buy the Best Boxing Gloves – Maxx Pro Boxing

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