An in depth yet simple guide produced to make you known to (or educate you on) the different kinds of gloves available in the market today. This guide will not only help you choose the right size but also find the most appropriate fit depending on the purpose you need it for, be it training (bag work), sparring, or actual competitions.
How to Size?
If you don’t already know this familiarize yourself with the first rule of sizing correctly for boxing gloves. The actual size and kind of glove is dependent upon body weight and purpose of use. Preferences obviously play a part in most people’s choices, however, if you are a competing boxer, a glove set built specifically for fighting will be needed. Those similar to me prefer to use one pair of glove for training and sparring.
Variations in Boxing Gloves:
- All Purpose Boxing Training Gloves
This probably stands true for most boxers, nearly each one of them has a favorite pair of glove that they train in. For training specifically, all you need to grab onto is a good pair of Training Gloves or Sparring Gloves. A point to note here is that training gloves can be used for all types of boxing training like hitting the bags and sparring. Some general guidelines for body-weight alongside variations in sizes of boxing training gloves are as follows:
| 120lbs & down (12oz or 14oz) |
| 120lbs – 150lbs (14oz – 16oz) |
| 150lbs – 180lbs (16oz – 20oz) |
|
180lbs & up (18oz & up) |
- Sparring Gloves
Sparring gloves consist of extra-padded training gloves so that your opponent gets a fair chance at avoiding getting seriously hurt. Unless you find yourself to be extremely petite and small sized, to the point of weighing less than 120 pounds, you won’t find most people sparing with anything under 16oz. To argue you could also spar with gloves weighting 14oz but these will not prep you well enough to butt heads with someone training on 160z.
Moving on to the next scale range, if your weight tends to exceed 175lbs. lean muscle, sparring with gloves weighing more than180oz or 20oz is recommended. Just make sure not to compete next to an opponent adorning gloves smaller than you.
A common widely adopted belief is that for weight class one should always spar with gloves at competition weight. Remember to go by what weight scale your weight class is competing in, and more importantly make sure to tone down a notch or two to ensure damage caused to one another at the eve of a major championship is minimal.
A personal recommendation to beginners would be to initially use bigger gloves and once they pick up pace they can gradually move on to competition weight gloves.