Sparring in 14oz Gloves?

[ssullivan80]

I totally agree that glove type and composition is a much larger factor than glove weight. I've had old 16 oz gloves that were complete garbage and I would much rather get hit by my current pair of 10 oz bag gloves. However, I have kings 16 oz and 12 oz sparring gloves, both lace up and almost exactly the same glove. I'd say the 4 oz difference is far from negligible though as the extra 4 oz is almost all put into additional padding. The difference in volume that the 4 oz makes is pretty remarkable.

It doesn't make much of a difference for me as I usually change up to the smaller gloves when I want to work on defense, not offense. I find the larger gloves make my defense awkward and sloppy and put on the 12's when I want to work on tightening it up.

Makes sense, and a 4oz difference in glove weight is fairly significant. But in the larger gloves 14 vs. 16, the difference is far less significant.

Personally, I don't much care if my sparring partner is wearing 12,14,16oz gloves. Usually because a guy who comes in to spar with 12oz gloves is not experienced, as guys with experience know better. What pisses me off is guys who will be beating on the bags and pads with the same gloves they use to spar. I have a pair of 18oz bag gloves that I use when I am really digging in and hitting the bag, and those things are like bricks from the padding being so compacted, i'd never even consider hitting an opponent with those on.

Bottom line, if you want to train and spar have at least 2 pairs of gloves, 1 to hit pads/bags and 1 to hit opponents. Ideally, your best bet is to buy 16's for sparring as it is typical gym protocol and given the choice why be "that guy" who doesn't adhere?

I do agree that larger gloves can make your defense awkward. I have a pair of 16oz reyes gloves (can see in my avatar pic) that I can just hold up at my jawline and they cover my whole damn face, but the actual hitting surface over the knuckles is really thin. Again, just different composition, the reyes are really wide, long and thinly padded gloves, I can hardly make a tight fist in those things. As you note, King gloves I have found to be exceptionally well made. As bag gloves they hold up like no other, but as a sparring glove they are not so friendly and the padding tends to compact awful quick...... at least from my experience. King gloves are built more like a boxing glove than a MT glove though, they have a longer cuff and thinner profile than the Twins or Windy gloves.