Are you a devoted boxing trainee? Or a soon-to-become professional fighter? How well do you know your game, how perfect are your skills for a bout in the ring? Do you have all the necessary knowledge you need? Let’s test it

• What ounce size of the boxing gloves must you be using for tomorrow’s bag work training?
• Which protective boxing gear would be your best companion during the sparring session today?
• Lace ups or hook up boxing gloves, which ones for the D-day?

Great! So you are already a library of knowledge and knowledge is power!

Let’s step into the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) today. Are you ready? Let’s go then.

What is the difference between MMA & Boxing?

It might sound like a U-turn from all that discussion about your favorite combat sport, boxing, so something uniquely different, the MMA. Well, while both are two of the most popular combat sports, it is best to understand each, how it differs or is similar to the other.

First, yes both the combat sports are different based on the following

§  Hitting limitations

The key identifier for an MMA VS boxing would be what all is allowed or not during a fight. Historically, even when the boxing gear was undergoing evolution, the main trigger was the protection of the fighters even during a professional fight. Hence there were associations set up, rules laid out, padding defined and what not.

Subsequently, boxing as we know today is a sport of punches meant to be landed with limitations even for a knockout, hardly ever below the belt. MMA, on the contrary, would allow those ferocious juices to flow and let you hit & punch and grab and knock out like in wrestling – let’s say it really is a combination of martial arts and wrestling.

§  Determining the winner

If you have been looking at the matches close enough, you must have noticed how a boxer would usually keep his hands close to the head, to be declared knocked out after three times of falling to the ground during the fight.

In MMA, you don’t get these three chances; you fall down once, you could be declared knocked out based on the referee’s signal of fight’s end. That is why, MMA fighters try keeping their hands free to protect the legs from being under attack by the opponent lest they should defeat you in a careless moment. Get an idea of the brutality? You take a knee in the MMA, the fight still goes on – after a third in boxing, the fight is declared over and you have a clear winner!

§  The ring & the cage

Ever imagined a street-side row taken to a fight in a cage, yeah imagine how it would feel. Well, the MMA is fought in a cage while the boxing, in a ring. This is one reason while MMA sounds to be gory than boxing in general with all that grappling and wrestling going on in a closed structure where the fighters could be hurt more.

With those 12, three-minute rounds in boxing with one minute of rest between each, versus twenty-five minutes of fight with a minute of break after every 5 minutes in MMA, you can’t really judge the ferocity of the game unless you know what really goes on in both the arenas.

§  The Gear

Here it comes, that talk about your armor for the competition.

Now you know what all is generally happening in that ring VS the cage! Essentially what that means is your skillset varies accordingly, so does your strategy and hence the gear you use for each of these sports. 

When you look at them, you would be able to see a clear difference in the design of the boxing gloves and the ones for the mixed martial arts. Your boxing glove would be a closed apparatus with padding fixed around the knuckles to ensure the support during a fight. The MMA gloves are rather open at the fingers, allowing free movements of the limbs to grapple the opponent for a knock out; you can’t do that in boxing by rules also.

The padding in an MMA fighting glove is also much lighter (about 5-70z) allowing greater flexibility to hold and throw aside the opponent. The boxing gloves on, on the contrary are heavier (8-10oz), got more padding meant for stronger punches without causing much damage to the fighter’s own hand.

Definitely, this means that the blows in an MMA match are more hurtful and have greater impact on one’s own hands too. But you if you ask us, these can be used even for some bag work, provided your coach’s consent and guidance in how well to use them, these can actually help you develop your knuckle strength.

Here’s the bonus

All set to shop for your customized boxing gloves? One of the top places to make the purchase these days is Infinitude. You’ve got to have a look at their variety and especially the 3D customizer that allows you personalization of the boxing gear, right to your taste.

Even for that quest of where to buy MMA gloves should end here. Infinitude Fight lets you design your own MMA gloves too; from logos to flags, stitch style, and color scheme, it’s all in your control.

Pour some more details for o us and our readers if you are already a mixed martial arts fighter, tell us about your experience with the MMA fighting gloves.