Muay Thai Gloves vs. Boxing Gloves

While looking for Muay Thai training Melbourne based, you’ll find yourself thinking about the equipment you’ll need for your class. Gloves are probably the first thing you’d need and while there aren’t any specific requirements for the gloves you use, it’s important to understand the difference between regular boxing gloves and Muay Thai gloves.

Today we’ll be going over the main differences between these gloves and what these differences can mean for your Muay Thai skills.

Why You Should Opt for Muay Thai Gloves

While you can use boxing gloves for Muay Thai with no drawback to your ability it’s always better to use gloves that are specifically designed for a particular sporting style. While boxing gloves need to be perfected for punching and blocking punches, a glove designed for Muay Thai needs to be much better rounded for the addition of clinching, catching kicks and blocking kicks or elbows.

Padding Distribution & Flexibility

One of the most distinguishable differences between boxing gloves and Muay Thai gloves is their padding distribution. Because in boxing the only strikes are punches it means that you only really need extra padding around the knuckles that will brute the most impact and force from your strikes. The square shape is created to force the fingers in a more closed position that’s needed for striking.

Muay Thai however includes points of attack from knees, kicks, elbows and spinning backfists. This means that there’s a stronger need for padding around the sides of the gloves, as this is the area in the glove that requires more padding from impacts. You’ll also find that Muay Thai gloves have a more uniformed padding around the knuckles and back of the hand. The shape of these gloves allows for more flexibility of the hand. They don’t allow you to close your hands as much as boxing gloves do so you can spread an open palm, which will help control the head and arms in the cinch.

Shape

Boxing gloves will have a square shape, while Muay Thai will be softer and rounder because of the distribution of the padding. The compact design of boxing gloves forms the hand more similar to a fist because of the types of attacks used. The softer shape of Muay Thai gloves is also dependent on the attack styles. When throwing punches in Muay Thai, hands should be more relaxed and less clenched which attributes to the rounder padding of the gloves, which promotes the relaxed shape your hands should have.

Wrist Support

As boxing is such a punching based sport the level of wrist support in their gloves is going to be higher than other gloves. Because of this strong punching form the gloves used by boxers will have wider and longer padded cuffs to create better wrist support. The velcro straps will also be thinner and tighter to maintain a stiff wrist while striking.

Meanwhile Muay Thai gloves will have shorter cuffs that allow more movement. This allows more flexibility which is a strong element needed in Muay Thai fighting styles.