Best MMA Training Gloves 2022

If you’re looking for the best MMA gloves you get your hands on (or in) online, then you’ve come to the right place!

Picking out a great pair of mitts for your training is one of the most important decisions you can make, so you need to make the correct call! 

You need to remember that, unlike in boxing, MMA gloves have between 4-6 oz padding, that’s not a great deal of separation between your knuckles and the outside of the glove. So investing in high quality is extremely important to keep you in the gym and out of the hospital (at worst).

A bad pair of gloves can damage your hands, wrists or fingers, so if you want to avoid long injury layoffs, then you should take your time and pick the perfect pair for your hands & training type. 

Luckily for you, we’ve done the research for you and listed out several key factors that you should pay attention to when choosing a pair of mixed martial arts gloves, which you can find below.

Things to consider before buying

Glove Type

Before picking out your new gear, you need to think about what kind of training you need them for. You’ll need a specific glove type, depending on the purpose.

That’s why it’s incredibly important to find the right gloves to train with! There are a few different glove types to choose from in MMA; Grappling, Hybrid & Sparring. 

A lot of fighters like to keep multiple pairs, which they change depending on what type of MMA training they are doing. 

Regardless of which glove type you choose, you need to be sure you pick a glove which is high quality, and great value for money.

Competition style

If you’re going to be competing in MMA, then you’re going to want to get competition style gloves.

This type has the least amount of padding out of all the options, typically 4 oz or less (depending on which circuit you are competing in, or what promotion).

This style separates at the fingers, and cover up to your second knuckle. This allows you the freedom to grapple with your opponent with much more ease than other glove styles.

Sparring Style

If you’re working on a heavy punching bag, whether it be a freestanding heavy bag or a wall-mounted bag, then you’ll need MMA sparring gloves. They usually have around 7 oz + of padding and have protection running up your fingers.

Due to the grip bar that comes in this glove style, they aren’t suitable for grappling, which you should be aware of.

Grappling / Hybrid Style

Grappling, or hybrid, gloves,  offer you a bit of additional padding, for your protection.
 
They are somewhere between a competition glove and a sparring glove, hence the common term ‘hybrid’.
 

Material and Quality

As we said before, ensuring you get a high quality pair of gloves is extremely important. The saying “you get what you pay for” is very true of MMA gloves. If you go for a low quality pair, purely because of the price tag, then you may find yourself re-doing your search after they break (or worse, you’ll be out of the gym with a hand injury).

So, if you’re interested in how to identify quality, then we may be able to help below:

leather vs synthetic

Mixed martial arts gloves are typically made with real leather vs synthetic.

Typically, high quality options are made with real leather, such as Maya hide leather. This gives them more crack resistance and make the gloves less prone to ‘wear and tear’. However, this will make them more expensive than synthetic options.

Padding

The padding used in the gloves are also incredibly important to pay attention. A good pair of gloves will offer superb hand protection with the use of layered foam, as it allows for strong shock absorption for your punches.

With the most high quality options on the market, tri-slab padding distributes shock impact across the glove, which will make punching easier on your wrist and hand (which is a huge bonus when you’re consistently drilling!)

Breathability

Naturally, you’re going to sweat a fair amount when you train / fight. Your hands are not immune from this, and that means your gloves can start to smell pretty bad after a few sessions. 

If this is a problem for you, then you should consider gloves which have odor resistant lining.

Or, look for a pair which have a D-cut curved palm design to circulate airflow to your hands. This keeps your palms dry.

The Difference Between MMA and Boxing Gloves

This section has been included because a lot of people think they can get away with using their boxing gloves for MMA or vice versa. I get it, we’re not all made of money and you were probably smart and invested in a good quality pair of gloves and don’t feel like shelling out for another pair!

Now, we’re not trying to tell you what to do, but we can at least provide you with enough information to make your own decision.

Weight 

Boxing gloves have a lot more padding than MMA ones do. Martial arts gloves are typically between 4-6 oz, whereas boxing mitts can be anywhere from 10-16 oz in competition. That’s triple the level of MMA padding in certain cases.

Shape

Possibly a more significant differnce is the shape of a boxing glove vs MMA. Boxing gloves cover the entire fist in a sort of mitten shape and they have no finger holes.

On the other hand, MMA competition gloves are open-palmed (you can see the fighter’s palm or hand wraps), and they have exposed finger holes which allows the fighter to make use of their fingers for grappling or holding on to their opponent. 

If you are training in MMA, and want to be able to grapple, you simply will not be able to do so in boxing gloves.

mma gloves

Check out these top of the range RDX MMA Gloves

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