For: Boxing Gloves (film)

Boxing gloves are gloves that fighters wear or use on their hands to cushion the impact during boxing matches. Their primary use is to protect the knuckles of the fighters. They are also used for protection from injury such as fractures and/or contusions when punched. Unlike the classical cestus, boxing gloves protect both opponents, and were adopted as a safety improvement over earlier "bare knuckle" boxing.

History

Boxing gloves became a part of professional bouts with the adaptation of the Marquess of Queensberry rules which were published in 1867. However it was not a sudden shift from the older, bare knuckle London Prize Ring rules and bare knuckle matches persisted for some time after. Gloves did exist before the Queensbury rules, however they were only used in training and not in matches. Jack Broughton is known to have created a form of boxing glove which were referred to as "mufflers" at the time.

Boxing Gloves have been around for over three thousand years. The Greeks handed it down to the Romans as a sporting event and as Romans had a tendency to do they turned it into a gladiatorial event. The old Greek method of using hardened leather strips as the gloves was implemented however with one significant change.

As a result of this many valiant Romans either wound up permanently crippled or in the worst cases it was fatal. The Romans believed that this type of extreme sport was too dangerous and in the years 30 BC it was ruled as an illegal activity and so carried on this way for over fifteen hundred years in the western world.

Boxing gloves reappeared in the seventeenth century and in the form of bare knuckle boxing bouts. As this was considered more civilized than it's predecessors boxing gloves came back in use from then. One of the pioneers of the new age boxing glove was a champion British boxer who incorporated padding into the glove for training purposes. The majority of competitive bouts were always done using bare knuckles. This however started to cause much of the same problems as the Romans had thousands of years ago. People ended up being killed inside the ring. As with all sports the actual contenders know how they wanted to play and were reluctant to give up the purity that bare knuckle boxing had and was then banned again in most parts of the world in the nineteenth century.

Bare knuckle boxing had seen its last days on a major scale and as a results of John Chambers made global the Queensbury rules and codes of boxing conduct and the incorporation on a mass scale of padded boxing gloves became the normality for most boxing nations, signalling the end for the above ground boxing events.

Variations

Boxing gloves come in different styles and weights, and are often worn over hand wraps, which help stabilize the fist area against injuries such as the eponymous boxer's fracture of the fifth metacarpal. Speed gloves are relatively light vinyl or leather mittens primarily designed to protect the athlete's hands against scrapes and contusions when doing very light "bag work" such as on a stand-mounted speed bag. Bag gloves are cushioned to protect the athlete against the progressively heavier focuses of striking other punching bags; these are the gloves most recommended by trainers for all boxing training, especially for non-sparrers. Sparring gloves are designed to protect both athletes during practice bouts. Professional fight gloves are also designed to protect both athletes, but are generally less padded. Sparring gloves may range from 14 oz to 20 oz, while bag gloves, amateur and professional fight gloves range from 8 to 10 ounces.