Boxing gloves are the pinnacle of the tools ever made for combative sports – MMA, boxing, or Muay Thai. Boxing gloves are the most needed and most common tools for combative sports. At Infinitude Fight, our team uses them every time they train, spar, or fight – just how it should be – but why?
Protection – we rely on boxing gloves for the protection they offer to our hands while we are hitting, bags, pads, or the odd face of an opponent – which brings us to – the protection boxing gloves offer to our sparring partners or boxing opponents.
Boxing gloves USA protect us from injuries and provide a protective shield to our opponents by minimizing the piercing impact of a well-thrown punch.
But frankly, how many times did you ever think about where that protection is coming from?
Or
What’s inside a boxing glove?
It is quite common knowledge that boxing gloves are made from either genuine leather or some synthetic variation. If you have a curious personality, only then you might have bothered to look inside the boxing glove lining, but most people haven’t taken to snipping the gloves to see what they hold inside.
This insider’s guide will cover the general options manufacturers use and elaborate in detail on what’s inside a boxing glove and the benefits of different types of padding – so, read this article till the end before you buy boxing gloves.
Horse Hair Padding Boxing Gloves
These gloves traditionally were stuffed with horsehair for padding. This, however, has fallen out of fashion and replaced with ultra-modern foam-based padding. Still, few brands use horsehair, though now, quilted horsehair is used and some kind of foam padding, making the gloves a cross of two options.
Horsehair gloves are generally regarded as punchers gloves, as their padding is harder, and with them, you can inflict the most piercing punches on your opponent.
However, it has a downside, too – while horsehair padding is good to transfer punch force, the protection they offer to your hands is reduced, raising the risks for injuries. Even when horsehair boxing gloves are used for fighting, most fighters favor modern padding with their training gloves.
Foam Padding Boxing Gloves
Currently, almost all boxer gloves use some form of foam padding, either layered foam or injection molded foam – as the names suggest – these are molded into the shape of a glove and aid in shaping the glove itself.
The padding, however, depends on the manufacturers‘ choice of making a mold. Similarly, the protection level of the gloves depends on the type of foam being used. The thing to remember is that there are limits on what type of foam material can be used to make these gloves.
When it comes to Layered foam, they provide more versatility for protection – as the manufacturer can decide to use different kinds of foam for different areas of the glove. For instance, a high-density foam can be used on the knuckles compared to the back of the hand – also extra layers could also be added to the high-impact areas of the glove.
Layered padding has a downside, too, as normally layered foam does not add to the structural integrity of the glove and is dependent on the leather and stitching to keep everything in place.
Gel Padding Boxing Gloves
Gel padding is another option for manufacturers that want to ditch the foam padding. Yet, gel padding is not common and works to evenly distribute the force of impact throughout the glove, improving protection.
Another school of thought argues that, with the movement of gel to distribute the impact, the stability of the wrist on impact can be reduced and lead to a higher risk of injury. What is your consideration when you decide to buy boxing gloves? Do you consider boxing gloves price? Also, what about the type of padding? Let us know what you think.
