CAT | MMA
Years ago, the mixed martial arts – MMA – were extremely brutal affairs, with no time limits, no rules and no holds barred, and the sport remained on the fringes because of this. Times have changed however, and nowadays MMA is regulated, it has rules and is split into timed rounds like boxing. The result is that is has become very popular on television, rebranded as UFC.
If you are interested in getting involved in MMA for yourself, there are certain pieces of equipment you will have to buy. The main ones are your MMA gloves. There are three types available, but it is not a case of choosing which ones you will wear; if you are serious about getting involved in the sport you will, at some point, require a pair of each kind. They each have different uses, and are called bag training gloves, sparring gloves and MMA fight gloves.
Bag Training Gloves
This type of training gloves is very similar to western boxing gloves in appearance, as they completely cover the hands and have lots of heavy padding for extra protection. There are a few differences however, the main ones being that the padding is made from a higher density material, and there is often a grip bar built into the MMA bag gloves. Another modification is the enhanced wrist protection compared to normal boxing gloves, and these features are all there to protect your hands and wrists from training injuries. Although they have a similar appearance to boxing gloves, do not use them for sparring with a partner, because the density of the padding makes it practically a certainty that you’ll injure him if you smack him in the face, and that won’t go down very well at all. Instead, for two person sparring, use the next type of MMA gloves.
Sparring Gloves
For the reasons mentioned above, if you want to do some two person sparring training, you will need to get yourself a pair of MMA sparring gloves. These are made from much softer, less dense padding so that both you and your partner can train safely without either of you getting injured. They look less like western boxing gloves than the bag type, as most designs are open at the palm with the padding covering the back of the hand. Depending on the brand you buy, you might find sparring gloves where you simply slide all your fingers through an elastic strap to hold the gloves in place; or you can also get ones which attach to each finger individually using small elastic loops. Because of the generous amount of protective padding, these gloves are fairly heavy and are therefore not valid for use in competition MMA fights.
Fight Gloves
Sometimes called competition gloves, the MMA fight gloves are very light in weight, at just 4 ounces. They have many similarities to the sparring gloves, except there is no padding (or very little). They will offer a little protection to the hands, and most bout rules specifically insist that hand wraps are worn under your fight gloves to prevent unnecessary injuries. MMA involves a lot of grappling techniques as well as the punching and kickboxing moves, and so the gloves are fingerless to allow the competitors to grab each other for throws, chokes and submission holds. It’s important that you only use fight gloves for competitions, because they can cause injuries if you start using them against a training partner; if you use them for training, only practise techniques, rather than full power sparring.
