Boxing gloves are primarily designed to prevent or limit the amount of damage to bones in the hand of the boxers, since boxing involves repetitive punching. Almost all boxing trainers will not allow boxers to train without wearing boxing gloves and hand/wrist wraps so buying the right boxing gloves is an important and essential purchase. Because the boxing gloves are used to protect the hands from injury they also allow the boxers to throw punches with more force than if they were bare. Boxing gloves are required in competition and have been since the latter part of the nineteenth century when the sport of boxing first began to become an organised sport in Great Britain, after originating way back in Ancient Greece.

There are three different types of boxing gloves. These are sparring gloves, bag gloves and fighting gloves and each are different because they provide different functions. Boxing bag gloves are designed for punchbag work and can be worn with or without hand wraps depending on how intensely you are training in your workout. These bag gloves are designed to be very durable but should not be confused with boxing bag mitts which will not protect your hands as well as boxing gloves when using them for heavy and/or frequent punch bag work. Boxing gloves are generally heavier than boxing mitts due to the extra padding.

There are also boxing gloves for use with a speedball. These are often fingerless and don't have as much protection on them as the speed balls are relatively harmless. They are fingerless to prevent a lot of sweating as using the speed ball can be an intense, powerful workout.

More boxing equipment: Boxing Boots