Buying the Best Martial Arts Gloves - Top Boxing Fingerless Karate Kickboxing Gloves

Martial arts gloves have become increasing robust and diverse as mixed martial arts have gained in popularity. The sport exploded in Japan with pride fighting in the 1990’.s and after 2005 with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Prior to around 1993 martial arts gloves were largely limited to kick boxing and boxing gloves. Indeed the evolution of the UFC for a no holds barred contest with no gloves and few rules into a more fan and culture conscious sport has seen the equipment, including gloves change with the sport’s growth. Martial arts gloves can be divided between bag, sparring and competing. You then have grappling and striking gloves. Finding the best martial art gloves is determining what material, weight and strength suits your discipline or use. 

The distinct differences are between MMA and kick boxing. Other martial arts gloves are used for aerobic fitness such as weighted kick boxing gloves. Mixed Martial arts gloves (other than weighted training gloves) are much lighter than boxing gloves. Typically the competitive gloves weigh just 4 ounces are lightly padded and are fingerless. The other martial arts gloves are kick boxing gloves which are similar to lighter boxing gloves. If you are training in martial arts you would need a pair of sparring and bag gloves. Martial arts are also a key part of many of the more extreme fitness programs. You don’t have to compete to integrate martial arts into your program for example it is part of the P90X 90 day extreme fitness exercise program. You can also use the weighted kick boxing gloves on the urban rebounder.

When you are looking for the best martial arts gloves you want to take into account what you want to use them for. This determines the weight and the padding. If you are looking to train on the heavy bag with martial arts gloves, as opposed to the heavier boxing gloves you are looking for more hand speed and feel. Bag work involves a lot of punching so you need to look at hand protection. 

Martial arts gloves for bag work are the most padded gloves given the nature of the workload. Whilst you still can strap your hands it is the amount of work that requires the padding. This is important for those using martial arts training with the P90X or urban rebounder training programs. You are likely to have softer hands than a serious martial artist. Secondly you want a solid glove with wrist protection. The wrist protection is because of fatigue and risk of injury from hitting the bag sideways. 

It is important to try the glove on, for example do you want a grip bar or does that affect your workout? Remember MMA gloves are fingerless and if you prefer full gloves but lighter than boxing gloves we use kickboxing gloves usually. These heavier gloves are designed for the heavier and more frequent hitting. The lighter sparring and combat or competition gloves won’t fair as well. Everlast are always popular as are the fight team brands like UFC and K1. There are many new brands since the popularity of MMA exploded in America.

Martial arts sparring gloves require protection for both your hands and your sparring partner.  When sparring there is not as much punching as working out on a bag. You are likely to have many more intense sessions depending on your discipline. With this comes fatigue and possible injury.  They have softer padding than combat or competition gloves but less than the martial arts bag gloves. Too much padding can lead to injury also.  Sparring glove are around 5 oz or higher. 

Martial arts sparring gloves are fingerless with an open palm. You have two basic sparring glove set ups. They are both fingerless, one with slots the other with loops for your fingers. The padding can come as one large pad more like a boxing coverall. The alternative is one lot of padding over the knuckles and another over the back of the hands. Your dojo may have rules to what you use here. Major brands include Everlast and UFC.

Martial arts gloves used in competition or combat are much the same as sparring gloves. The big difference is the padding.  Gloves used in bouts are generally around 4 oz.   Different fighting organizations have slightly different gloves, some of this is because of branding and some is because of discipline and rule difference. For example Strikeforce and UFC sell their own martial arts gloves. 

Most martial arts competition gloves have individual finger slots and all MMA gloves are fingerless to enable grappling. It is wise not to use the combat gloves for sparring or bag work as you don’t have the protection on your gloves for continual beating of the hands. When competing boxing hand wraps are required and will be inspected by the referee before a bout. I recommend wrapping before sparring also so you become accustomed and to further protect your knuckles.

Kickboxing is rated one of the most exciting martial arts and non contact kick boxing has become very popular for exercisers. There are different variations of kick boxing. Thai boxing or Mhuay Thai is very popular. Mhuay Thai uses a lot of knees in it's discipline and has become popular with a lot of UFC fighters. 

Given the intense nature of kickboxing and the use of legs and hands makes it ideal for aerobic workouts. Kickboxing improves your flexibility and durability. Martial arts gloves for kickboxing are similar to traditional boxing but lighter and with greater wrist support. There are also weighted kickboxing gloves. These are used for fighters to improve strength and stamina and also for different aerobic kickboxing techniques.

It is important to remember when you are choosing what martial art gloves suit you what discipline or work out strategy you are using. If you are a fighter you need bag, sparring and competition gloves. If you do martial arts as part of an extreme fitness program you will likely use bag or kick boxing gloves. Some of the aerobic fitness programs may use weighted kickboxing gloves.

Once you have done that then determine what padding and wrist supports you need. What quality, leather or artificial for example. Be wary of the many knockoffs. Remember your hands are your greatest asset with martial arts. This means finding the best martial arts gloves is very important. Martial arts magazines and your dojo are great sources of finding out the best martial arts glove for you.

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