I get asked a lot about gloves to use for Muay Thai and have used many different gloves from various brands and different weight over the years. One of the interesting things I have learned when comparing Muay Thai gloves to boxing gloves is the shape of the glove, where in my opinion, Muay Thai training gloves tend to be a little more bulbous in shape, kind of like balloons! especially when they’re around 16oz.
A lot of it comes down to the type of sessions you train in, for example, the Muay Thai sessions I teach at Evolve18 in South Woodford would require you to be able to take your gloves off and put back on relatively quickly as we go through different exercises and drills. (the last thing you want to do is lose time in your session messing around with gloves) therefor I would recommend avoiding lace up gloves, although these are my favourite and provide the best fit (and look the best), the velcro closure is just way easier.
Sizes – this is an important one and it comes down to usage, if you are hitting pads and working on fineness, i would recommend 8oz gloves if you’re up to 60kg in weight, if you’re heavier then 10oz gloves would do just great. Just know that you could be more prone to injury as you have less protection around your hands, you may need to change the gloves more often, on the upside is you can feel the pad more and better track if you are hitting with your knuckles or not. I’ve also personally found 12oz or 14oz gloves to be fantastic all round gloves for protection whilst providing a bit of weight to your fists for some conditioning through the rounds.
Now, when it comes to price points, I believe in investing in some quality, after all these are going to protect your hands… and you need them! also, with secondary markets such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace you can sell them usually for a decent price..
Some of my favourites gloves I’ve used over the years include the following:
TWINS
FAIRTEX
TOP KING
I personally prefer their older designs form the legendary K-1 MAX days
https://www.topkingboxing.com/category/9487/47/boxing-gloves
YOKKAO
They have each been similar in quality and longevity, most of them last me years at a time. I also had each pair of gloves only one pair at a time and would train sometimes 5 days a week.
This is where it becomes important to take care of your gloves which is why I’d always recommend airing your gloves out and using something that can draw out some of the moisture.
STRIKING WITH CHRIS 