If you’re going to be doing any sort of combat training, you need gloves. It’s that simple. When you’re just punching a bag, entry-level gloves are fine.
Once you move on up to sparring and fighting, then your gloves need to move on up with you. Here’s our pick of the best gloves for the bag, for sparring and for actual proper fighting.
Best Boxing Gloves For The Bag
If you’re only hitting a heavy bag, then entry-level gloves are fine. Basically, all you need is something to protect your hands from the impact of hitting a heavy object. You don’t need to worry about what it could do if it hit you back!
Content Quick Jump
Everlast Mixed Martial Arts Heavy Bag Gloves
Ignore the MMA bit, heavy bag training is heavy bag training. It doesn’t matter what your sport is, or even if you just want a general work-out. The important point is that these gloves offer solid value. You might say they protect your hands without hurting your wallet.
These heavy bag gloves do have a wrist wrap and hence may feel a bit more reassuringly snug on slimmer wrists. They also have an open thumb, which seems to be a matter of taste. Some people love to have their thumb free and others say it makes them feel vulnerable. If you’re in the former group, these heavy bag gloves are definitely worth a look.
Everlast Mixed Martial Arts Heavy Bag Gloves (L/XL)
- More than 1" of formed foam padding makes for excellent fit and protection
- In-Box Contents: 1 Pair Boxing Gloves
- Material: Synthetic leather
- More than 1" of formed foam padding makes for excellent fit and protection
- In-Box Contents: 1 Pair Boxing Gloves
- Material: Synthetic leather
Everlast Pro Style Training Gloves
Even though Everlast is known as a value brand, we have to say, we do think these gloves look the part and they’re pretty unbeatable value.
The thumb is fully enclosed and the thumb pouch has a grip cord to give you good hold when punching, plus there’s plenty of padding to keep your fingers and knuckles from hurting. The palm is made of mesh to keep sweat at bay and the wrist cuff has an antimicrobial treatment to help tame odour. The wrist wrap is hook and loop, which is quite impressive for gloves of this price.
Overall, we’d say these gloves will take you comfortably (in every sense of the phrase) from beginner through to intermediate.
Everlast Pro Style Training Gloves (Red, 16 oz.)
- Integrating exclusive Ever last features in a sleek yet affordable package, the Pro Style Elite Training gloves continue to be a favorite of boxers across the globe.
- Premium synthetic leather along with superior construction increases durability
- Integrating exclusive Ever last features in a sleek yet affordable package, the Pro Style Elite Training gloves continue to be a favorite of boxers across the globe.
- Premium synthetic leather along with superior construction increases durability
- New Ever Shield technology provides extra wrist support and protection
RDX Elite Boxing Gloves Training Sparring Punching Glove Cow Hide Leather kickboxing Muay Thai Fighting Bag Mitts
Ignore the keyword-stuffed description, these are excellent heavy bag gloves, in fact, in our opinion, they’re far better for heavy bag work than they are for sparring because they are quite hard. They are also superbly tough on the outside and exceptionally well-padded on the inside so basically, you can throw all your weight into your punch and know that your hands will be effectively protected.
In addition to the padding, there’s also a special lining in the hand area to whisk away sweat and help to keep your hands cool and dry. The other key point about these gloves is that while they do have a wrist wrap, it works a little differently to your standard one, again, you either like it or you don’t.
Overall, we’d consider these gloves to be on a par with gloves over twice their price and we’d consider them to be an excellent, long-term investment purchase for people who know that they’ll be committed to training for at least two or three years to come.
RDX Elite Boxing Gloves Training Sparring Punching Glove Cow Hide Leather kickboxing...
- Gel Efficax lining offer premium protection and are solely manufactured with compact padding. It additionally assists in hand safety. This padding technology distributes the force evenly while your hands stay secure
- Gel Efficax lining offer premium protection and are solely manufactured with compact padding. It additionally assists in hand safety. This padding technology distributes the force evenly while your hands stay secure
- Shell-Shock padding provides finest shock opposition. Tactically placed Shell Shock Gel Lining between the foam padding offer denser cushion to minimize the blunt from forceful impacts.
- 100% authentic Cowhide leather for longevity. The genuine material perfectly assists in sparring, training or boxing. The leather casing is sturdier, and resistant to crack, tear and splits
- Nylon sweat wicking mesh enhances breathability. The doted mesh palm gives a trendy and fashionable look, keeps the skin fresh, pleasant and odor free.
- Quick EZ Hook-and-Loop, secures the glove stays in place. Additionally, it correctly aligns your wrists with the hand and forearm
RDX Boxing Gloves Ego Muay Thai Training Maya Hide Leather Sparring Punching Bag Mitts kickboxing Punch Fighting
As far as we can tell Maya Hide translates as leather, but moving swiftly past the keyword-filled name, we can cut to the chase and tell you that these are great gloves, which will give you many years of capable service.
The leather outer is hand-stitched and after a few sessions on the heavy bag, you’ll discover for yourself how thorough a job the workers at RDX have done. What we really like about these gloves, however, is the “Quadro-Dome Technology”, which is a fancy way of saying, RDX have put a lot of padding into these gloves so that not only is your hand protected but it is held in the right shape.
The palms are vented leather, which is a good compromise between protection and breathability and the combination of a decently long opening and sturdy hook and loop wrist wrap means that the gloves are easy to get on and off, but once they’re on, they’re really on.
In general, we’d say that these gloves are simply outstanding for the price.
RDX Boxing Gloves Ego Muay Thai Training Maya Hide Leather Sparring Punching...
- ✅ INCREASED USABILITY AND HIGHER ENDURANCE – RDX brings its premium EGO Series Boxing Gloves for tough training and sparring by boxers, kickboxers, and Muay Thai practitioners. The use of Maya Hide leather allows you to use full force without holding back in your boxing training. These punching gloves can be the perfect upgrade to your training and pre-fight exercise. The premium finish makes them the perfect training gloves for men and women alike. 8OZ and 10OZ ARE RECOMMENDED FOR UPTO 14 YEARS OF AGE
- ✅ INCREASED USABILITY AND HIGHER ENDURANCE – RDX brings its premium EGO Series Boxing Gloves for tough training and sparring by boxers, kickboxers, and Muay Thai practitioners. The use of Maya Hide leather allows you to use full force without holding back in your boxing training. These punching gloves can be the perfect upgrade to your training and pre-fight exercise. The premium finish makes them the perfect training gloves for men and women alike. 8OZ and 10OZ ARE RECOMMENDED FOR UPTO 14 YEARS OF AGE
- ✅ SUPERIOR IMPACT DIFFUSION – These heavy bag gloves are advanced punching bag gloves that have a Polygonal Fusion Foam, EVA Foam Padding, Spongy Blacktop Fabric, Calibrated Impact Diffusion Sheet, Infused Dispersion Sheet, and SpongeX. Multiple padding layers in these fighting gloves are the result of advanced innovation as they keep your fists completely safe during the hardest sparring sessions.
- ✅ KEEP YOUR HANDS DRY WITH EFFICIENT VENTILATION – These exclusive F7 series boxing bag gloves come with S.P.P ventilation holes placed strategically on the central palm area as well as the thumb region. The increased airflow keeps your palms and hands sweat-free, making them the ideal boxing and kickboxing gloves for longer and more robust usage.
- ✅ FLAWLESS FORM WITH EASE – The perfect form of the fists is always critical for any fighter, however, for boxers and kickboxers, it becomes essential if they want to keep their hands safe. These boxing training gloves have DenZo Tron grip bar in the upper palm area and the connected thumb design naturally supports your ideal fist formation. These fighting boxing gloves let you unleash your full power without any trouble at all.
- ✅ ALIGN FISTS WITH YOUR WRISTS – These Maya hide leather boxing gloves offer maximum utility to men and women combined. Get an extra-long quick-touch fastener strap, which ensures improved support and alignment of your fists with your wrists. This way you can easily power up your punches, without worrying about the alignment and dispersion of your force.
RDX Boxing Gloves Maya Hide Leather Punch Bag Mitts Sparring Punching Training Kickboxing Muay Thai Martial Arts
Again, “Maya hide” apparently simply means that they have leather outers behind which there are three layers of padding on the main part of the glove and two layers at the wrist. This means that not only are your fingers and knuckles well protected, but your wrist bone is unlikely to be damaged by the constant pounding of training. The hook-and-loop wrist strap does its job well and keeps these gloves secure while you pummel the heavy bag.
One point you should note is that these gloves are designed to be tight-fitting to offer maximum support to your wrist. This means that you may find them a little uncomfortable until they are broken in. Once they are broken in, you will probably still find them on the snug side compared to many other gloves, but not uncomfortably so.
Overall these are superb gloves, which offer excellent value.
RDX Boxing Gloves Maya Hide Leather Punch Bag Mitts Sparring Punching Training...
Best for training/sparring
If you’re training with a real partner or sparring with a real opponent, you’re at higher risk of injury than you are when you’re just hitting a heavy bag. Basically, accidents are going to happen and some punches are going to land differently from how they should. In other words, you need gloves with a bit more protection.
Read Our Article On‘How To Clean Your Boxing Gloves’CLICK HERE
Fairtex Boxing Kickboxing Muay Thai Style Sparring Gloves Training Punching Bag Mitts
What we particularly like about these gloves is that even though they have real leather outers and are very robust, they’re also very easy to break-in. You might find that just one session is enough. If we have one gripe about these gloves, it’s that they do seem to take their sweet time to dry. Having said that you can get drying inserts for them or, if you’re old school (or cheap) put some bicarbonate of soda into little fabric bags (using a natural fabric like cotton) and pop them inside.
The padding does its job well and we quite like the fact that Fairtex has basically split the difference between mesh palms and leather palms by creating a leather palm with ventilation holes. These gloves fit snugly on the hand and the hook and loop wrist wrap keeps them firmly in place. Overall, you can reasonably expect these gloves to look good and perform well even after literally years of use and abuse.
Fairtex Muay Thai-Style Sparring Gloves, BGV1 Serie, Color:Black,Red,Blue,White, Size: 10 -16 oz....
- Ergonomically engineered with a unique contoured and tight-fit hand compartment design to provide a secure and snug fit.
- Constructed of premium quality leather with Fairtex signature three-layered foam for excellent hand and knuckle protection and shock dispersement.
- Ergonomically engineered with a unique contoured and tight-fit hand compartment design to provide a secure and snug fit.
- Constructed of premium quality leather with Fairtex signature three-layered foam for excellent hand and knuckle protection and shock dispersement.
- Handmade in Thailand
- Color : white
- Size: 8 oz, 10 oz, 12 oz, 14 oz, 16 oz, 18 oz
Fairtex Muay Thai boxing gloves BGV1
The first point you have to understand about these gloves is that they have been deliberately designed to have a tight fit. By this, obviously, we don’t mean “cut off your blood flow tight”, we mean “maybe a bit snugger than you’re used to” tight. Basically, the idea is that these gloves will hold your hand securely in the correct position while you punch.
When you do punch, you’ll find the leather outer and three layers of foam padding will ensure that your fingers and knuckles are kept safe and the shock of the impact is well dispersed over the surface of the glove. The hook-and-loop wrist strap will ensure that these gloves stay put even over the heaviest of sessions.
We also have to add that we think these gloves look really good as well as performing well.
Fairtex Muay Thai Boxing Gloves BGV1 Color: Black Blue Red Yellow White...
- Ergonomically engineered with a unique contoured and tight-fit hand compartment designed to provide a secure and snug fit.
- Constructed of premium leather with the Fairtex foam system for excellent hand and knuckle protection and shock disbursement.
- Ergonomically engineered with a unique contoured and tight-fit hand compartment designed to provide a secure and snug fit.
- Constructed of premium leather with the Fairtex foam system for excellent hand and knuckle protection and shock disbursement.
- Genuine leather gloves with vectro straps.
- All-purpose boxing gloves and Tight fit design.
- Handmade in Thailand. Size: 8 - 16 oz.
Sanabul Essential GEL Boxing Kickboxing Training Gloves
The “Essential” line is Sanabul’s entry-level line and prices reflect this, but what it means in practice is that products are absolutely fine for general forms of training such as the heavy bag, but if you do decide to move ahead with kickboxing, then you’re probably want to move on up.
These gloves are decently strong on the outside. We doubt they’ll stand up to years of use, but by the time they wear out, you’ll probably be happy enough to upgrade anyway. There’s plenty of gel padding on the inside and a mesh palm both of which kept to keep your hands safe and comfortable.
Rather impressively for this price point, these gloves have a proper wrist wrap (rather than an elastic strap) and it does its job very well. There’s also a women’s version of these gloves, although there are plenty of women use the standard version perfectly happily.
Sanabul Essential Gel Boxing Kickboxing Gloves (Black/Orange, 10 oz)
- Performance engineered leather construction. High quality and durable material is easier to clean and maintain
- Gel impact protection foam. Gel Infused foam provides superb protection and softness to help prevent injury to your hands while training
- Performance engineered leather construction. High quality and durable material is easier to clean and maintain
- Gel impact protection foam. Gel Infused foam provides superb protection and softness to help prevent injury to your hands while training
- Longitudinal arch design. Constructed to fit the natural curvature of the hand for proper fist closure while striking
- Secure Velcro closure System. Ensures a secure fit for training while making the gloves easy to put on or take off
- Mesh palm. Helps keep hands cooler and increases breathability of the gloves"
Venum Unisex Adult Elite Boxing Gloves
Venum Elite Boxing Gloves , Black, 14 oz
- Specific mesh panel placed under the fist for a great thermal regulation
- Triple Density foam
- Reinforced palm for a maximum absorption
- Strengthened seams for a long-lasting quality
- Large Velcro enclosure with elastic
- Specific mesh panel placed under the fist for a great thermal regulation
- Triple Density foam
- Reinforced palm for a maximum absorption
- Strengthened seams for a long-lasting quality
- Large Velcro enclosure with elastic
Best for the fight
If you’re actually going to get into the ring and fight then you need decent gloves and that’s all there is to it. Even amateur fighting can result in serious injuries - unless you have the right protection.
Ringside Lace IMF Tech Training Gloves
We have to say upfront that if your plan is to train completely on your own, then you probably want to move on to any of our other suggestions. These are lace-up gloves, which means that you’re almost certainly going to need some help to get them on and off again. The reason why there is still a market for lace-up gloves (aside from the fact that they have a certain degree of “old-school cool”) is that it’s much easier to fit them, exactly, how you like them. For the record, the laces stay in place just as well as hook and loop straps do.
Moving on from there, the outers are synthetic leather, but are still very decent and there’s 2.5 inches of foam padding behind it. If you want a pair of gloves which you can break in quickly but which will still last the course, then definitely take a look at these. To us, they felt like they were already broken in and ready to go. The thumb is enclosed and the palm is full (synthetic) leather, both thumb and palm have some breathing holes. We’d have preferred a few more but, to use at least, it’s a minor issue.
We’d say these gloves are really good value for what you get and provide solid protection for both fingers and wrists.
Ringside Pro Style IMF Tech Lace Training Gloves - 470ml - Black/White/Red
Best Boxing Gloves Conclusion
A good pair of boxing gloves is an investment in your comfort and safety regardless of whether you’re just using the heavy bag, sparring or actually fighting. Even if you train in a gym which supplies gloves, we’d still suggest getting your own pair as quickly as you can for two simple reasons. Firstly it puts you in control of what specific gloves you use and secondly it puts you in control of their cleanliness. Bluntly, boxing gloves are like workout shoes, they get very sweaty, and given how affordable even the higher-end gloves are, we’d say that’s a very strong argument for getting your own.
Fitness trainer to the stars with over 20 years of experience, Kelvin loves his job, his clients and passing on his knowledge. Appeared on TV numerous times. Penned several E-Books and currently lecturing at Lancaster University. Always smiling, on the move and raising money for charities
![Best Adjustable Kettlebells UK – [Full Buyers Guide & Reviews]](https://fitnessauthority.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Best-Adjustable-Kettlebells-UK-.jpg)
