Best Boxing Gloves for Training • KO Boxing Gloves

Finding the Right Boxing Gloves for YOU

Are There Any Special Requirements?

If you are new member of a boxing club it is always a safe bet to ask if there are any requirements for gloves. For example, as a preventative measure for injury my boxing club requires gloves that have a thumb attachment. This generally is not a problem, as most gloves have this.

Also, a club may prefer that you don’t use gloves that are too light (under 12oz), but chances are the gloves you purchase will be 12oz or higher. I recommend 16 oz gloves. To view a chart on selecting the right size of boxing gloves, visit the Everlast Education page.

Do You Plan On Sparring or Have Any Hand Injuries?

If you plan on doing any sparring, then you will want to make sure you have a pair of boxing gloves with ample protection in front of the knuckles with no dead spots. Dead (or flat) spots shouldn’t be a problem on any new gloves, but if you’re borrowing a pair or have an old pair, make sure to check for oddly distributed padding that has resulted from prolonged use.

Remember, even if you think the gloves provide enough protection for you, chances are you’re going to land some shots on your sparring partner, so keep in mind their protection as well. After all, you would hope they return the favor. In general, larger gloves with lots of padding up front are ideal.

Many boxing clubs will have gloves set aside for sparring, but some don’t. So if you need good boxing gloves for sparring, check with your gym first to see if they provide any, and if not, if they have any requirements or recommendations for the type of training you will be doing. It’s safe to say they will require an attached thumb, but most boxing gloves come with that anyway.

Even if you don’t plan on doing any sparring, if you have any history of hand or wrist injuries, or simply want to prioritize injury prevention, then lots of padding and wrist support is a good way to go. Your punches may not feel as powerful, but if you’re not competing that doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re getting the workout you desire without any injuries.

Check out the video below for a brief, simple, and informative tutorial on the difference between certain types of boxing gloves:

Do You Have a Budget?

Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I start looking at sports equipment I get fired up and lose sight of my budget. One trick I’ve found useful is simply being real with myself. One question you may want to ask is: how committed are you?

If you plan on participating in a boxing training program on a regular basis, you may want to invest in a more expensive pair of boxing gloves that are known for comfort, durability, and/or performance.

If you are just starting out and know that you will use them every once in a while, it could be a good idea to set a budget limit for yourself prior to shopping around, and then consider upgrading once you have a better sense of your involvement.

Do You Have Any Personal Preferences?

Whether you’re a pro fighter or have never worn a pair of boxing gloves, chances are you will have some personal preferences. You may already know some of these, and others you will develop along the way, but in any case, personal preference matters. Listed below are things to look for in boxing gloves that may affect your decision:

Laces or Velcro

In my opinion, you can’t beat the feel of a pair of gloves with laces, especially when reinforced with tape. The main disadvantage? Try putting both gloves on yourself. Unless you’re always working out with someone else, or are often sparring and have trainer around, I would stick with Velcro. Velcro boxing gloves can still feel great, and have a massive advantage in that you can conveniently put them on and take them off whenever you want.

Protection or Power

I lean heavily towards protection. Even if you have a grudge towards a certain heavy bag, at the end of the day it’s not going to care about how powerful your punches feel. To save yourself unnecessary injury, it’s a good idea to use gloves that offer adequate protection. This is especially important if you have a history of hand or wrist problems.

A lot of the pros also favor protection over power when training, even if they don’t have a history of hand injuries. Most gloves are now well enough designed to offer adequate protection, but it’s still something to keep in mind when shopping around.

Style

With the growing popularity of many different combative sports (e.g. Muay Thai), Thai-style gloves are now becoming more popular in North America. If you’re training at a boxing club and don’t plan on sparring or fighting, than it might not matter to them what you choose, but it is still important to have an understanding of the differences between Thai-style and conventional boxing gloves.

Ultimately, the differences depend on brand. For example, some Thai-style gloves may not have an attached thumb, padding could be more dispersed for catching and blocking kicks, hands may be able to open a little more for clinching, etc. These are just things to double check before making the purchase.

Click here for more information on the history and different types of boxing gloves.

Looks

Big time personal preference. If the quality is the only thing that matters to you, try not to be fooled by flashy gloves. This isn’t to say gloves with graphics or bright colors are bad, in fact some are great, but try and look beyond appearance especially if you are a beginner.

Based purely on looks, it might be easy to bypass a less-flashy, but exceptional brand like Winning, which could be the dream pair of boxing gloves for you. As a side note, I love the look of Winning boxing gloves. They remind me of old-school Cooper hockey gear. Can’t beat it.

What Size Boxing Gloves Should I Use?

This is a question that we receive quite often. Generally speaking, we usually recommend 16oz boxing gloves as these are very common and a fairly typical weight for training. You don’t want something that will cause you to fatigue too quickly that you can never complete a workout, but at the same time you want a good amount of protection.

For sparring, you can sometimes go a little bit lighter, for example 14oz boxing gloves. I used to do this regularly at a boxing gym on the east coast, primarily because I opted to use the communal boxing gloves and all the sparring gloves were 14oz. It may seem counter-intuitive to reduce the weight of boxing gloves for sparring, but it actually makes sense considering competition gloves are much lighter, and sparring is exhausting and therefore you don’t want to be fatigued too quickly.

Furthermore, sparring gloves are often kept in great condition and only used for sparring (at least they should be), so even though they may be slightly lighter, they have adequate protection with no dead spots, and the physical size of them is still quite large so you can easily block punches coming your way.

In summary, we recommend 16oz boxing gloves for training and 14oz or 16oz boxing gloves for sparring. If you are interested in boxing glove weights for amateur and professional competition, please check out our boxing glove weight guide below. Please keep in mind that the gloves you train in should often be heavier than the gloves you compete in.

USA Amateur Boxing Glove Weight Regulations (Amateur Boxing)

Light flyweight (49kg or 108lbs) to Light Welterweight (64kg or 141 lbs) = 10oz boxing gloves

Welterweight (69kg or 152lbs) to Super Heavyweight (91+kg or 200+lbs) = 12oz boxing gloves

For all other USA boxing competitions = 10oz boxing gloves

*NOTE: The same regulations apply in Canada

WBO (World Boxing Organization – Professional Boxing)

Mini Flyweight (48kg or 105lbs) to Welterweight (67kg or 147lbs) = 8oz boxing gloves

Jr. Middleweight (70kg or 154lbs) to Heavyweight (91+kg or 200+lbs) = 10oz boxing gloves

Individual Reviews

Winning Training Boxing Gloves

These are regarded by many as the top rated boxing gloves on the market. Known for superior hand protection, a comfortable fit, and a classy look, they have been used by many pro fighters during training, including Floyd Mayweather Jr. Easily one of the best boxing gloves for hand protection, which for most, will translate to one of the best boxing gloves for the heavy bag.

I have personally tried these gloves and they feel great, but I have not been able to use them for an extended period of time so I cannot personally attest to their ability to reduce injury. However, I’ve had the chance to chat with recreational and competitive boxers who have experienced minor-severe hand problems, and they swear by these gloves.

The main drawback? They’re expensive. If you are able to afford these gloves without a problem then I would highly recommend them, especially if you’re training on a very regular basis or have experienced hand injuries in the past. If they are way outside the budget, don’t sweat it, there are lots of gloves out there.

Everlast Pro Style Training Gloves

Everlast is one of the most recognizable boxing equipment brands in the world. Their gloves are known to be solid, but not necessarily top of the line. The gloves you see in the store and online are generally not what you see the pros wearing, so keep that in mind.

The main advantage to these gloves is the cost. For what you pay, it’s a solid glove that can perform well. If you are a beginner or on a very tight budget, these could be the smartest choice for you. I’ve tried these gloves and they feel quite nice with ample protection for the bag, but the durability doesn’t match some of the more expensive gloves. Over time you may notice you can feel more and more of the impact as the gloves wear down, but for the price, it’s still a bargain.

Hayabusa Ikusa Training Gloves

With the emergence of great feedback from recreational, amateur, and pro fighters, these gloves are trending upward, especially in the MMA world. The patented Dual-X closure system offers better fit and makes it one of the best boxing gloves for wrist support. Plus, they are known to stand up to the test of time. The even distribution of high-quality padding provides a light-weight feel, which can make hitting the heavy bag a lot more fun.

In terms of aesthetics, they have become quite popular due to the wide selection of colors (e.g. blue/yellow, orange, black, white, etc) and unique design. With good quality to back up the looks, these are just all-around good boxing gloves for training. As a wise man once said to me, “Value play, bro.”

Venum Elite Boxing Gloves

This is another brand of boxing glove that has become more popular lately especially in the MMA community. It appears they have put a lot of effort into the manufacturing process in order to provide a sleek, comfortable, and durable boxing glove.

Technical features include mesh panels for thermal regulation, triple density foam, strengthened seams for a long-lasting quality, premium Skintex leather construction, and much more.

As far as boxing gloves go, they are moderately priced, which is a good fit for them. Highly recommended by many boxers, some of the more underrated aspects of these gloves are the comfort and the velcro wrist strap that is super easy to do up.

There are mixed reviews about the looks, as the graphics are more flashy than a conventional boxing glove. Personally, I find them a little too flashy for my liking, but I’m also the type of guy that rocks an earth-toned polo with permanent pit stains to the club, so it could also be a safe call to ignore my opinion on looks and decide for yourself.

Twins Special Boxing Gloves

Twins Special boxing gloves are a very popular, particularly among Thai boxers. They are hand-crafted with 100% premium Thai-leather and are well known for providing ample protection and durability.

They may be less of an all-around glove, as the snug fit and enhanced protection comes at the cost of decreased flexibility, albeit, a trade-off many are more than willing to accept.

At a mid-range cost, these Thai-style gloves are recommended by many, and if protection is what you’re after, you can’t beat the value of these boxing gloves.

Boxing Glove Brands – Summary

Below, we would like to provide a summary of what we think of various boxing glove brands. We won’t go into specific models, particular features, etc, but instead just provide two or three lines on our overall impression of different boxing glove brands.

Everlast Boxing Gloves

Everlast boxing gloves are pretty solid in terms of value. They give you all the basic features at a relatively low price. However, if you are looking for something better in terms of quality and performance, we would recommend looking at other boxing glove brands, as Everlast’s higher end boxing gloves are either a little too expensive or just not as good as other boxing brands. All that being said, Everlast is one of the most popular boxing brands in general, so they have lots to offer in addition to boxing gloves.

Title Boxing Gloves

Title is a very reputable boxing glove brand, and just a solid boxing brand in general. They have a wide range of gloves to choose from and it seems that they are always good boxing gloves for the price. Nothing too special, but always worth considering, especially when on a moderate budget. A lot of boxers find these to be the best heavy bag gloves, and they also provide more specialized gloves like weighted boxing gloves.

Hayabusa Boxing Gloves

Hayabusa boxing gloves haven’t been this popular forever. As a relatively recent brand, at least to pure boxing, they hit the market with a fresh perspective on what makes a good boxing glove. Hayabusa tends to make fairly expensive boxing gloves, but the “you get what you pay for” motto certainly applies here. Higher end gloves that come with an associated slightly higher price point, there’s no trickery here.

Winning Boxing Gloves

Wow, these definitely aren’t cheap boxing gloves! That being said, they aren’t just good boxing gloves, but we would say they are the top boxing gloves available. Winning is a Japenese boxing brand that doesn’t have a huge presence on American soil, nevertheless, Winning boxing gloves are extremely well respected in the boxing community. If your budget is no issue at all, then we highly recommend the Winning brand for boxing gloves and any associated equipment.

Venum Boxing Gloves

Venum boxing gloves aren’t as popular of a boxing glove brand, but the gloves they do have are pretty good. They tend to be a little more hit or miss for the boxers that we know have tired them, but they definitely aren’t bad gloves. A lot of people pick them because of the styling on the outside. We recommend against this, just because we feel quality and performance are more important, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice! Overall, we would recommend these gloves if you have a fairly good idea of what you want and have tried at least a couple other brands in the past.