What hits harder, a gloved fist or a bare one?

[jabsRstiff]

look what happened to Billy Collins Jr when he fought someone without proper gloves. i know this example has nothing to do with force (which would remain constant between gloves/no gloves), but a fighter with no gloves would inflict much more concussive damage than to one with gloves.

What happened was his features were beaten into swollen mask, but....

...I don't think he ever really even wobbled from any of the blows.

[Banderivets]

I have a problem with guys saying that "in a street fight I hit as hard as I can and worry about my hands AFTER"

Are you guys for real?

My boy shattered one of his metacarpals and has a rod in his hand now from "just committing and worrying about it later"

My hands arent 100% to this day for committing when I was younger...


but at the same time.......Im not swinging wild trying to hit a home run if I get into a scrap...You dont need to load up Vmax to break someones nose or to drop him.

[fitefanSHO]

I have a problem with guys saying that "in a street fight I hit as hard as I can and worry about my hands AFTER"

Are you guys for real?

Glad somebody came along and said what I was thinkin.

[jabsRstiff]

I have a problem with guys saying that "in a street fight I hit as hard as I can and worry about my hands AFTER"

Are you guys for real?

My boy shattered one of his metacarpals and has a rod in his hand now from "just committing and worrying about it later"

My hands arent 100% to this day for committing when I was younger...


but at the same time.......Im not swinging wild trying to hit a home run if I get into a scrap...You dont need to load up Vmax to break someones nose or to drop him.

I am very FOR REAL.


Sorry, but the street fights I have been in....there's been no time for thinking. Thinking in a street fight usually means you're gonna get your ass kicked.

[Steak]

Its very clearly a bare one. Sparring with boxing gloves is one thing, but when I did it with mma gloves on it was a completely different story. Simple jabs or light punches would cause busted lips or facial damage like nothing, and I felt like a complete jackass for hurting two people in a row when I was trying not to.

When you have no gloves on youre concentrating a lot of the weight and power into a smaller area, your knuckle, as opposed to the entire glove. Think about it like the difference between hitting with a hammer and hitting with a mallet.
Its possible that you will feel more of a 'push' on the material by hitting with a mallet since it distributes the weight more, but I think its clear that a hammer causes much more damage.

[fitefanSHO]

But can a fighter really put as much into punches with bare fists and without the protection of gloves and wrap? That is my whole argument that basically boxers punch the hardest of anyone (mma and/or street fighters) because a) punching is their only weapon and they have the most highly developed punching skills of anyone, and b) because they have gloves to protect their hands (their weapon) and that allows them to take their highly developed punching skills and lets them use them without concern for hurting their hands.

[jabsRstiff]

But can a fighter really put as much into punches with bare fists and without the protection of gloves and wrap? That is my whole argument that basically boxers punch the hardest of anyone (mma and/or street fighters) because a) punching is their only weapon and they have the most highly developed punching skills of anyone, and b) because they have gloves to protect their hands (their weapon) and that allows them to take their highly developed punching skills and lets them use them without concern for hurting their hands.

Sure, he can punch as hard.....as long as he is just letting his hands go and not thinking about the consequences (to himself).

What makes a boxer dangerous is that throwing hard punches is second nature to him. He doesn't have to think about what punch to throw or how to throw it. He'll just do what's been ingrained in him to do with his fists.

[Steak]

But can a fighter really put as much into punches with bare fists and without the protection of gloves and wrap? That is my whole argument that basically boxers punch the hardest of anyone (mma and/or street fighters) because a) punching is their only weapon and they have the most highly developed punching skills of anyone, and b) because they have gloves to protect their hands (their weapon) and that allows them to take their highly developed punching skills and lets them use them without concern for hurting their hands.

sure, and I agree with that mostly. But Im simply saying that if the two punches are equal in all other ways, the one without a boxing glove on it will cause a lot more damage.

it was shocking how simple straight right hands and light left hooks ****ed peoples days up, especially facial damage wise. I was completely unprepared for it, after sparring people with boxing gloves for so long.
I havent hit anyone in the face with 4oz gloves on since...I always pull it back at the last second...lol

[fitefanSHO]

My OP was not about damage, it was about which hits harder.

I think it's been established (at least IMO) that the gloved/wrapped fist of a professional boxer is capable of punching HARDER than anyone.

Harder than the slightly gloved fist of a cage fighter, primarily because cage fighters are not as skilled at punching as boxers and also to some considerable extent because the small glove does not provide as much protection to the fist and the MMA guy simply cannot put as much into his already inferior punches.

Harder than a street fighter because the street fighter definitely can't punch as well as a boxer and has no glove at all to protect his hand. And harder than anyone who is drunk in a bar and and can't punch straight at all anyway, gloves or not.

[Steak]

ok, well if you take a professsional boxer and take his boxing gloves off, he will hit harder. end of story.

but mostly using larger gloves can help you learn and condition you to throwing more powerful shots.