MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world right now but if you compare it with boxing it is still in its infant stage. The UFC matches are now telecast live and competitions are able to generate a lot of interest in fighting fans worldwide.
Gloves are used in both boxing and MMA, however there are some considerable differences among them due to the different demands and challenges faced by the fighters. As MMA involves several additional striking options for a fighter as compared to the boxer such as grappling, kicking, using elbows, submissions, take-downs, throws and what not, the list is never ending.
The gloves used by MMA and UFC fighters are constantly evolving as is the sport. On the other hand boxing has maintained its classic style over the years. Just recently we have started seeing different types of boxing gloves made of synthetic material that is highly durable and effective. They offer much more protection for the hands and wrists as compared to their predecessors.
MMA bag gloves vs. Boxing Bag Gloves
People often ask whether to use a boxing bag glove or MMA bag glove in order to improve punching performance. What are the key differences in both?
Most important thing to remember is that whatever type of bag gloves you try, just don’t forget to put on your hand-wraps. These will not only help you hold together your knuckles from getting bruised but also protect your wrists.
When a fighter is trying to polish his or her boxing skills in front of a punching bag, especially designed bag gloves are used. The MMA bag gloves, as compared to the boxing bag gloves are much lighter and smaller in size, usually between 4oz to 8oz. The padding used is significantly less and fingers are left open.
On the other hand, Boxing bag gloves usually between 16oz to 18 oz, will help protect your hands better especially during heavy bag workouts and a boxing glove is much gentler on your sparring partners. At times you will want to use MMA gloves for your sparring. They are smaller and lighter and make it harder to pick off punches or take them on your gloves like you can with boxing gloves. A lot of the sparring that fighters do in training when using MMA gloves is controlled sparring for this reason and they monitor how hard they are throwing and landing shots on each other especially if training for an upcoming fight.
When using MMA gloves you will use less of a hand wrap or no hand wrap at all and just gauze or elastic wrap and will wrap your hands slightly differently if you are also going to be doing some grappling. You’ll find 1 1/2″ ace bandages work really well for this as they are thinner and shorter than a conventional hand wrap and you can more easily get a MMA glove on over them and you can use them repeatedly where gauze gets expensive and is harder to wrap your hands yourself with.
