If you’re picking out a new pair gloves for your training regimen, it is important to know the difference between Muay Thai gloves and boxing gloves. Senshi Academy, which offers training in Muay Thai Melbourne-wide, can provide you with expert advice on all things Muay Thai. But without that guidance, you can easily get confused when buying gloves for training, especially as an amateur. Gloves for Muay Thai and boxing are similar in many ways, but they do have some significant differences that set them apart. The cuff length on Muay Thai gloves is somewhat shorter than that of boxing gloves to provide a perfect clinch. They also have more padding at the back of the hand, the top of the hand, and the palm for greater protection against kicks and elbows, which you won’t need to worry about with regular boxing. On the other hand, Boxing gloves have more padding at the wrist and knuckles.
Let’s take a look at some of the other differences between Boxing and Muay Thai gloves.
Different Sports, Different Gloves
The reason these two types of gloves have so many small differences is that boxing and Muay Thai, while superficially similar, are two very different sports. Boxing involves a lot of quick punches, leading to a lot of stress on the knuckles. Hence, boxing gloves need to be well padded to protect the knuckles. Muay Thai, on the other hand, is a form of martial art. It is a challenging sport that makes full use of all eight limbs during combat. That’s right, EIGHT limbs; fists, legs, elbows, and knees are all involved. The clinching, catching, and blocking of kicks is intense in Muay Thai. The gloves need to be well padded in a round shape to catch kicks and clinch to avoid injury.
The Palm
In boxing, the combatant has to ward off kicks and punches, while Muay Thai fighters need to have extra flexibility to grip. They need to be able to grasp the kicks with either hand. With boxing, you focus only on deflecting the punches. That’s why boxing gloves are padded in a round shape, to curl your fingers around and form a fist. With Muay Thai, the gloves are padded in a way that allows your palm to stay open. Compared to stiff boxing gloves, the pad of a Muay Thai glove is moulded in such a way as to offer improved flexibility.
The Side
Boxing gloves are not heavily padded from the sides. The pads on either side of boxing gloves are usually light as this portion of the glove do not generally sustain any direct hits when boxing. With Muay Thai gloves, the side of the glove has a little stiff padding. This is because the side of the hands are much more active in Muay Thai; used for blocking blows from the opponent’s feet, elbows, and knees, they are subject to a far greater frequency and intensity of impacts. There should be extra protection in the case of Muay Thai as it is comparatively a challenging sport and requires the combatant to fend off blows from all directions.
The Cuff
One of the most common injuries that occur in both sports is bending the wrist from a punch. Boxing gloves have long cuffs to prevent the bending of wrists when punching. In Muay Thai, your wrist will get hit whenever you deflect a kick. Therefore, you need some space for your wrist to bend. It also helps in clinching your opponent’s neck and getting a firm grip on it.
