If you love mixed martial arts fighting you really need to protect your hands from damage. The best MMA gloves provide superior wrist support and knuckle protection, which helps you fight longer and attack with more force.
MMA can be a very brutal and rough sport so it’s important to take the best care of your hands so you can continue fighting for as long as you live. Here we take a look at the top 6 best MMA gloves and review our top three picks in more detail.
Consider This When Buying MMA Gloves
There are basically two types of MMA gloves and two styles of fighters that use them. You have the traditional glove which is just leather and has no added padding or wrist support. These are best suited to fighters who want to really feel the blows they’re inflicting on their opponents.
The second type is a glove that has added padding and wrist support. Wrist support minimizes the risk of breaking your wrist or pulling a muscle in your hand or arm. Whilst knuckle padding protects your knuckles from your opponents hard bones and other objects that could break your bones.
Top 6 MMA Gloves Comparison
| Picture | Name | Features | Price | Rating (1-5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Hayabusa Ikusa MMA Gloves | Regulation weight, ultimate wrist support | $$$$ | 4.7 |
| 2. RDX Maya Hide Leather Grappling | Shock protection, moisture wicking | $$$ | 4.4 |
| 3. Everlast Mixed Martial Arts | Extra padding | $$ | 4.2 |
| 4. Ship from LA- SKL Half Finger | Durable, minimal padding | $ | 4.1 |
| 5. SUTEN MMA Muay Thai | Extra wrist support, additional padding | $ | 4.1 |
| 6. Everlast Pro Style | Moisture wicking, superior wrist support | $$ | 3.9 |
Buying Information
When comparing the different MMA gloves that we have listed above there are a few things to consider:
- Additional wrist straps are a great add on to MMA gloves as they provide further support for your wrist and strengthen the connection between your wrist and your forearm. This allows you to plant heavier, more powerful blows to your opponent.
- Added padding can be a good thing and a bad thing. Padding protects your hands from injury during fights, but it also stops them from toughening up for street fights. If you choose a glove with padding, it’s a good idea to train without them from time to time to build up your hand strength.
- Moisture wicking is important for long fighting sessions or for warmer climates. The last thing you want is a sweaty hand when you’re fighting. Too much moisture in the gloves can lead to annoying moisture related infections such as dermatitis.
- Gloves should always be a snug fit. If they are too large, they will not protect you from injury – in fact they are more likely to cause one. If they are too small, they’ll be too uncomfortable to fight in and restrict your movements. Snug fitting gloves are a little tight to put on and take off, but still allow you to make a closed fist easily.
- Hand straps are not used with MMA gloves (unlike boxing gloves), so keep this in mind when choosing the right size.
Top 3 Best MMA Gloves Reviews
1. Hayabusa Ikusa
Nothing even comes close to the quality and feel of these gloves. In all of our tests we found them to outperform all other choices by a long shot. Firstly the build quality it extremely high, with great quality stitching, leather and padding materials. When you unbox these gloves they immediately invite closer inspection.
Whilst fighting with them, we found that the flexibility in the finger to be great. The first few weeks of use can be a little stiff, but once they are worn in the finger mobility is really good. Whilst the Velcro strap provided more than enough wrist support.
Hayabusa has opted to use two Velcro straps for the wrist support and this is a feature we strongly appreciate. The first strap locks the glove onto your hand, and the second tightens the bond and ensures the gloves will never slip off in a match.
These gloves have a bamboo lining that helps fight odor and fungus from sweaty palms – it feels very comfortable too.
I know these are the most expensive gloves on our list but if you want something of high quality, that will last a lifetime and feel great with every use, then these gloves will never let you down. They are worth every penny.
2. RDX F12
A high quality glove for a much more affordable price. These gloves are ideal for occasional and hobbyist fighters. They still provide many of the features of our top contender but are a fraction of the price!
Again we see moisture wicking as a key feature, and although the Hayabusa gloves performed much better on keeping our hands dry, these gloves worked well for most of the time. We loved the shock protection on the knuckles, it felt very natural and provided good support.
Wrist support was there and was sufficient for our sparring and fights.
3. Everlast
A basic yet well-built glove. This glove is really our starting choice for any new fighters. It provides all the basic features of an MMA glove without the price tag. If you’re just starting out in professional fighting then this glove will suit you just fine.
But if you want the very best MMA glove on the market, our pick is the Hayabusa Ikusa.
