What MMA gloves should I buy? There’s a lot of junk out there on the internet on what Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gloves an MMA athlete or practitioner should buy. There reason why there’s so much junk out there about what MMA gloves to buy is because all this so called advice on buying MMA gloves is propagated webmasters who are more interested in getting you to click links on their website (a.k.a. article mills) so that you can sent to a website like Amazon.com in the hopes that you will buy the gloves they recommend and they get a small commission. What makes it worse, is that there are just so many MMA glove brands and types out there that there are just so many choices.

But nope. We ain’t like that. We will deliver to you an as honest as possible guide to buying your first pair of MMA gloves. This website MMA for the Working Man is more of a website written by people passionate about MMA for guys with full time corporate jobs but like to keep fit, and we really aren’t writing this article to make any money, so you can trust what we say. Lots of websites out there are article mills where they outsource or farm out article writing and plaster ads or links out there so they can earn commissions. That ain’t us. We’re the good guys.

First let’s go through the basics. Then, let’s go through a couple of fallacies that I see lots of websites (AKA article mills) push. Then, let’s go to the truths in buying gloves. I inserted a couple of super valuable MFTWM (MMA for the Working Man) Pro Tips in the article that are absolute pure gold. So here’s our two cents on the whole buying MMA gloves.

The Basics

MMA gloves are gloves that are specifically for the sport of MMA. Some people call them grappling gloves, but I think this is a misnomer, because if you’re just going to do grappling, why bother wearing gloves anyway. MMA gloves are open fingered, meaning the finger is exposed, and the padding onlys extend down until past the first or second knuckle. (Gloves which extend only past the first knuckle are better, read on to find out why). They generally come in different sizes from tiny sizes for kids to really big sizes for hamfisted fighters. They come in all sorts of colors and differing styles as well.

There are lots of gloves out there that look like MMA gloves, such as openhanded Taekwondo or Karate sparring gloves, but don’t get these. The gloves you get should have separate padding per finger to allow you to spread your hand open and grip easily. There should be no padding on the palm of the hand, because it’s important to get a grip. Be sure you are getting MMA gloves.

There are also broken-knuckle Kempo style gloves which has padding extending down the finger (the gloves are not open fingered) that is segmented. These aren’t MMA gloves either and they are hard to grip with.

Also do not get MMA gloves where the padding for the back of the hand is segmented for the ones covering the fingers. these kinds are aweful, they don’t provide less protection and get destroyed really easily. A good MMA glove just has the same piece of padding covering the back of the hand and the knuckles.

A good way to test MMA gloves is to actually wear them and try opening and closing your hand. Your hands should open and close easily. Also don’t get a pair where the bands or straps for the individual finger fall off easily and can be quite a bother. Bands which go some length around the finger are better since the it’s less likely to fall off during sparring or a fight.

I guess that moe or less covers the basics so let’s now go the fallacies of buying MMA gloves.

Fallacy # 1: There is no need to get the best gloves

There is nothing wrong with getting cheap gloves. As long as they aren’t super dirt cheap ones that will fall apart in a couple of uses, you don’t have to go all crazy over gloves. Buy gloves that are cheap and you can throw away in a year or two. Get something reasonable to your budget. Buy hey, if you are swimming in hundred dollar bills, wy not? Get the best money can buy. But if you price is an issue, get something you 100% in your heart agree on the price with.

I see too many people with super expensive gloves in their gym bag but barely use them. They’re gloves for cryin’ out loud. Forget the fancy ones that are so expensive that you feel obliged to take care of them like silk panties. Get something you don’t mind getting drenched in sweat and blood and you can pound the heavy bag day in and day out with.

Forget the expensive big name brands. Get something you can afford, nice on your hands and will put a smile on your face.

Fallacy #2: Expensive ones last longer than cheap ones

This is generally true, that something with a big brand label on it will most likely be of high quality. But this is not the absolute truth. There might be ten different brands ranging from $10 to $100 but they might all come from the same factory in southern China or Pakistan.

And what if I buy cheap ones and they do fall apart? Then go get another. The state of the world commerce is so advanced now that you can buy MMA gloves with a couple of clicks of the of mouse or a quick visit to your sports shop.

Another thing with the state of international commerce now is that any enterprising business person can come up with a fancy brand name, have some fancy pictures made and outsources the manufacturing gloves from overseas and put a big fat price tag on them. Just because something costs a lot doesn’t mean its better.

Fallacy # 3: Buy “Training Gloves” for Training

There’s this kind of MMA glove have some kind of bar in the middle that you can grip on supposedly to make your fist more sold that is something sold as “training gloves”. Yeah, sure that sounds good. The problem is that they suck for grappling. Don’t buy them.

It’s better to have gloves which allow your hand to freely spread its fingers. Most competition gloves will allow that. If you are worried about needing gloves with extra padding so you won’t break your hand, get boxing gloves for your pad and bag work. You should be getting boxing gloves for heavy pad and bag work.

If you like training gloves because they offer more padding, like the 7 ounce gloves, you can go for them. But but buy them because you are comfortable with them, not just because the manufacturer called them training gloves.

Fallacy # 4: “Always go for quality.”

False. Always go with something you can afford and feel comfortable banging around. Lots of guys will give a whole lot of cr*p and heap on a lot of guilt on you if ever you mention scrimping on gloves for training. “Don’t buy those cheap synthetic gloves. Look at my beautiful gloves from Japan/Thailand. I pay for quality.” they’ll say. Nope. Don’t listen to that. Buy what you’re comfortable buying. If you just train once a week and you think a standard less than $20 pair is good, that’s exactly what you should buy.

A lot of guys and websites out there will tell you to go for leather gloves. Going for genuine leather gloves is not always better for you. Again price and comfort are important as well.

Fallacy # 5: Competition gloves

There is really no such freaking thing as a competition glove. Most MMA competition organizers will most likely supply you with the gloves. Your competition gloves are the what ever gloves the organizers of the MMA competition you are going to join are going to give you. Unless of course you are joining a really small competition where the participants bring their own gloves. In that case get the lightest gloves with the least padding you can find so you’ll have more hard knuckle with each punch you throw.

MFTWM Pro Tip: It’s nice to have a pair of 4-6 ounce gloves since these are the ones you’re most likely to use in competition. This is what is standard under the current rules that the UFC uses. For boxing work, you’ll have to get separate gloves anyway.

Now that we’ve gone through the fallacies, let’s go through the truths.

Truths # 1:

The most important thing in buying is that your are comfortable with them. Some really expensive brands out there can be a big too stiff or uncomfortable. Don’t rely too much on marketing ads. Ask for advice from more experienced mixed martial artists, but trust your own gut more. You know better what is comfortable for you and within your budget levels. Some people like buying cheapo gloves that they replace after some time. Some mixed martial artists like buying really fancy gloves. Buy something you that’s just right for you and something you won’t mind using every single day if you have to.

MFTWM Pro Tip: Try not to get the gloves that extend all the way past the second joint (counting the knuckle as the first) of the finger. After some rigorous pad or bag work the gloves could skin the second joint of your finger because the skin there is really thin. Your hand wraps shouldn’t extend all the way past the second joint in MMA so your fingers can spread. Well yeah, its just the skimn on the second joint of your fingers but it is darn painful and will affect your training and skin takes a long time to grow back there.

Truth # 2: It’s better to buy gloves in person than online

Unless you already bought a brand before, and are familiar with its sizing, it’s better to buy MMA gloves in person. This way you can slip them on, and maybe even wear your hand wraps before you slip them on. Almost all other websites out there in internet land won’t tell you this since they want you to click links on their site and collect their commission, but this is the the plain truth. While there is a general guide on hand sizes, more or less each manufacturer might make them a bit tighter or looser depending on what they think is right. It’s kind of like shoe sizes but a lot less regulated.

The grip is also a big factor. Be sure the grip is comfortable even in a scuffle. You should be able to open and close your hand with ease.

There are just so many details that are just so hard to see online. I’m not saying don’t buy gloves online though. If it’s really so much more convenient to buy them online then go ahead and just look for something that has a lot of good genuine reviews that has a long sales history. (Beware of fake reviews on shopping sites like Amazon)

Truth # 3: Buy gloves close to what you’ll use in competition

It’s best to use something as close as possible to what you’ll use in competition. This will make sure you will get used to them as much as possible. Of course, as mentioned previously, it will usually be up to the organizer on what gloves they’re going to give you on competition day. Organizers will usually give you and your opponent the same kind of gloves.

MFTWM Pro Tip: This is an important one. Do NOT get a glove that fits too snuggly on your bare hands. Try to get a size that’s a bit big because you just won’t be just wearing the gloves. You should be wearing hand wraps under your gloves. If not you can skin your knuckles after a long session of bag work. That interferes with your training and it just plains sucks.

So here it is. This is our honest guide to buying MMA gloves. In the end, to each person his own. But we hope that this honest guide of ours will point you in the right direction.