Boxing gloves

Boxing gloves are gloves that fighters wear or use on their hands to cushion the impact during boxing matches. They are also used for protection from injury such as fractures and/or contusions when punched. Unlike the classical cestus, boxing gloves protect both opponents, and were adopted as a safety improvement over earlier "bare knuckle" boxing.

History

Boxing gloves became a part of professional bouts with the adaptation of the Marquess of Queensberry rules which were published in 1867. However it was not a sudden shift from the older, bare knuckle London Prize Ring rules and bare knuckle matches persisted for some time after. Gloves did exist before the Queensbury rules, however they were only used in training and not in matches. Jack Broughton is known to have created a form of boxing glove which were referred to as "mufflers" at the time.

Variations

Boxing gloves come in different styles and weights, and are often worn over hand wraps, which help stabilize the fist area against injuries such as the eponymous boxer's fracture of the fifth metacarpal. Speed gloves are relatively light vinyl or leather mittens primarily designed to protect the athlete's hands against scrapes and contusions when doing very light "bag work" such as on a stand-mounted speed bag. Bag gloves are cushioned to protect the athlete against the progressively heavier focuses of striking other punching bags and sparring gloves are designed to protect both athletes during practice bouts. Professional fight gloves are also designed to protect both athletes, but are generally less padded.

In competition gloves are laced up and then sealed with tape before the match. The tape is then signed by an official to ensure that it is not tampered with. However training gloves usually use velcro rather than laces so that athletes can more easily get their gloves on and off.

Gloves used in amateur boxing are frequently red or blue, with a white "scoring area" to help judges more easily see and record points.

Advantages depending on the weight of the glove

Because of their added weight, heavier gloves are generally considered safer^{[unreliable source?]}, since energy in physics is the product of force and distance. Since a padded glove increases the distance over which the energy of the punch is transferred to the target, the average force experienced by both the boxer's hand and the target are reduced. A blow to the head with a heavily padded glove is less likely to cause the sudden acceleration of the skull that causes much of the brain trauma associated with boxing injuries. Larger gloves also dissipate the force of the blow over a larger area^{[unreliable source?]}, reducing the pressure felt by the target, and resulting in less injury to tissue at the site of the blow. Common weights for gloves in the United States are sixteen, twelve and eight ounces. Many athletes train with heavier gloves than they will use in competition, to avoid injuring sparring partners and as a way to increase endurance.

Influence of boxing gloves in other fight sports

Open-fingered grappling gloves are frequently used in mixed martial arts bouts, but such MMA gloves are not boxing gloves. Similar to the wrist-supporting, closed-thumb, broken-knuckle kempo gloves popularized by Bruce Lee's 1973 movie Enter the Dragon, they provide some padding to the person wearing the glove, but leave the fingers available for intricate wrestling and grappling maneuvers such as clinch fighting, which are illegal in modern boxing.

See also

• Boxing