Save Boxing: Smaller Gloves, Smaller Ring

[Derranged_]

How big were the gloves for the DLH-Mayweather fight? I think they were 10 oz which I don't have a problem with but if boxers are wearing 12oz gloves you might have a point.

[Benny Leonard]

Anybody notice Larry mentioning this very same topic tonight (after the Taylor vs. Spinks fight), Smaller ring, Smaller gloves....different results, better fights

[BmoreBrawler]

If it were up to me, I'd keep the gloves the way they are but rescind the new 10 oz welterweight and up glove rule. Put that back to 8oz.

Ring should be smaller, no doubt.

[jswa17]

Larry Merchant had a point tonight.

Smallers gloves and smaller rings would definitely benefit boxing in general.

Take that "tap and run" or "one punch and run" style to amateurs.

Pro fighters shouldn't fight like that. People wouldn't pay to watch boxing if every fighter fought that way. That would just drown the sport even deeper.

[Domain]

I agree they need to make the gloves 6 oz only and quick ko's is better then pro longed brain swelling from the bigger gloves.

[pesticid]

Man I just don't know.

These guys throw rapid enough punches with ridiculous amounts of snap on them as it is wearing the 8 or 10 or whatever ounce gloves.

I think that would cause a lot of deaths from trauma, because I'm from the school that believes fighters nowadays are just superior to their old time counterparts who did in fact fight bare fisted.

Case and point look at all the physical specimens fighting each other. Sports science has evolved too far to take any type of training wheels off........because the bike would go way faster than anything ever before.

The thing is I don;t think there was a single death incident in boxing before the gloves were introduced to the sport. Less padding, you gonna get your hand hurt, besides there is another school of thought. The punch with the glove on might not leave as many visible injuries but might just as well be the harder blow. I am strong believer though that if the gloves there wouldn;t be any more death fatalities, I think people are gonna stat breaking hands when they accidentally hit an elbow, a hip and maybe even a forehead.

[Benny Leonard]

All this death talk is nonsense, we are talking about two men throwing punches at eachother, what do you think can happen?

How about we just ban this "barbaric" sport if we have been pussified.

Lets also not get carried away, it may be an "off topic" argument, but alcohol kills more people per year, yet where is the outrage compared.

On that note, let us start putting people devouring the garbage they eat every day on television, another cause of many deaths, much more than boxing.


We have to look at ourselves closely in a mirror and decide who we want to be and what type of society we want to live in.

[AntonTheMeh]

bump..........

[frankpaganini]

MMA is where it is because people want to see Knockouts, not sparring (like in boxing).

The gloves that Oscar and Floyd were wearing could not have been 8oz gloves as they used to. Vegas are responsible for increasing the glove size. Funny since Vegas allow MMA to wear those tiny little gloves.


Anybody know what size gloves Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Louis, Robinson, Pep, etc. were wearing?
Glove Size per era, per weight class, anybody know?


I do remember seeing fights with Marciano and even Foreman wearing 8oz gloves.
Even one match with Ali when he fought some German person (or I think he was German), the gloves he was wearing looked small, almost reminded me of bag gloves.
Tyson even had at least one fight with 8oz gloves.

I am tired of the big sparring gloves being worn: Too many people can just sit there and block ala Winky Wright.
This is the other problem: gloves should fit like a fist, not like a pillow, wide and puffy.


Boxing should decrease ring size a bit so that you cannot run all over the place. Enough room for someone to get out of the way, but not enough to run a marathon.


I want to see boxing step its game up to compete with MMA.
The downside to MMA, in my opinion, is the boring ground attacks/grappling. Not many seem to have the skill set in their hand attacks as elite boxers, although I admit it is harder for them to "master" when they have to be well rounded in everything.


I am not saying Heavyweights should wear 4oz gloves, but 8oz gloves would be nice, with lower weight divisions wearing 5-7 (which I am not even sure they make odd number oz gloves, but somebody should consider it if they could).
"Reyes" glovs should only be worn or at least make sure all the gloves fit a standard of measurement with how thick/puffy they are. Kind of like how Hockey measures the Goalie's leg pads.

I strongly disagree with this.

Excitement doesnt have ANYTHING to do with glove size or ring size.

The essence of it (in my opinion) comes down to matchmaking...

you put corrales against castillo; marquez against vasquez; gatti v. ward and you will get the excitement.

If you place paulie malignaggi against steve forbes you will get a highly technical BOXING match...

however thats what the sport is called; BOXING...not MMA...hbo shows world championship BOXING not world championship KNOCKOUTS...

However i understand people purely love knockouts...and if they want to see knockouts or high action then they need to watch felicano, margarito, gatti, castillo, juan diaz, manny pacquiao, etc. etc. etc.

the sport as a whole doesnt need to change glove or ring size...the match making needs to improve...look at the diaz v. diaz fight...that was high action...if you put mayweather against forbes what will you get? high action? knockouts? certainly not.

you will get a tactical boxing match.

matching making needs to be improved and fans (casual or otherwise) need not get duped into thinking forbes v. malignaggi will be a brawl consisting of standing 8 counts; multiple knockdowns; blood and bruises...but rather a technical boxing match...

thats the solution.

[SkillspayBills]

Gloves are larger FOR A REASON. We don't need these fatalities. These were one of the rules implemented to prevent them.