The Dilemma Between Cheap and Branded Boxing Equipment

There are lots of boxing equipment for sale out in the market. Some are cheap while others are priced highly. And if you are itching to get yourself some boxing equipment, you better answer the following questions first.

Do you want to be a professional boxer or is boxing a new means of getting fit and buff? The answers to such questions can help you decide what type of boxing equipment you might need to buy.

As a general rule in boxing, do not purchase cheap boxing gloves or any boxing equipment if you are looking to become a pro. Boxing equipment are created to help you become a better fighter, as such, they should be treated as investments.

If you are just starting out, do not worry about getting yourself a new pair of punching gloves or rig your garage with a heavy punching bag. Your trainer and the facility where you train will provide the equipment you will require for your training.

However, if you are boxing for the sake of wellness and health improvement, then it is quite okay that you use low-priced equipment. Heck, you can even buy used boxing gloves. But still you need to take care of your equipment if you want them to last long with you.

The Evolution of the Boxing Gloves

Modern boxers are a far cry from their ancient opposites. Back in ancient times, the practice of fist fighting was a brutal and completely merciless form of combat. It was never a competition. The conditions for victory included death of one or both fighters. In the truest sense of the term, the antique form of boxing was a dog eat dog contest.

With hands designated to do the talking, the modern boxing gloves’ predecessors were unforgiving both in form and in purpose. While today’s professional boxing gloves may be deemed tools of brutality, they pale in comparison to the designs and trimmings of their earlier versions.

The first form of boxing gloves, common among the Greeks, Etruscans , the Shardana and the Egyptians, was hardened leather straps wrapped around the knuckles. Crude, but these trappings were quite effective in causing unpleasant injuries for the person on the receiving end.

As ages went by, the Greeks had the hard leather straps replaced by gloves adorned with spikes. But when the Roman Empire rose, the boxing evolved from a combat form to a spectator sport.
Gladiators became the boxers of ancient Rome and the preferred equipment was the cestus – a type of leather glove fitted with sharp blades and metal plates. The cestus was designed to maim – and in most cases, to kill – an opponent.

When the Roman Empire fell, boxing also went out of the spotlight. But undocumented series of fist fighting still went on until the sport resurfaced in England in the 18th century in the form of bare-knuckle boxing, also called prizefighting. As the name suggested, bare knuckle fighting did not use any form of gloves.

When the modern era of boxing was ushered in the 19th century, bare-knuckle fights have waned and the use of padded gloves soon became the norm. Jack Broughton is credited for the creation of the cushioned boxing gloves, which soon became the basis of today’s boxing gloves.

How to Properly Apply Handwraps

ing handwraps are not just some fancy piece of fabric you put around your hands before you lace your boxing gloves up. This piece of fabric is there because it intends to protect your hands from sustaining serious injuries due to extensive and continuous punching and at the same time, blocking and parrying your opponent’s strikes.

That said, you need some expert hands to apply the handwraps or else suffer some grave consequences come fight time. Handwraps should not be too loose as it can get untangled quickly and will affect the way you perform. On the other hand, handwraps should not be too tight as they would constrict the blood flow in your hands, which also greatly alters the way you fight.

Below is an Expert Village video of Leo Cardenas, a professional boxer, demonstrating the proper application of the handwraps.

A Look at Boxing's Roots

Boxing has been one of the enduring sports today. While the London Prize Ring Rules, the first set of rules and regulations ever integrated to the sport, was inked and signed and legalized in 1743 in England, boxing’s goes deeper and farther into the history.

There are traces of fist fighting that might have occurred in ancient Rome, India, Egypt, and Greece. That said, boxing gloves of today are said to have evolved from the ancient equipment of boxing. Early Mediterranean boxers used strips of leather as their choice of boxing gloves. In ancient Greece, boxers, or pugilists, wore gloves with spikes,with fight ending either in a knockout, or a fighter leaving the fight, or sometimes at the casualty of one of the fighters.

The punching bag also originated from the Greeks. In an effort to increase punching power, Greek youth would practice their punches on a korykos, the earliest form of a punching bag. By 668 BC, boxing was included in the Olympics until the sporting event was banned by the Christian emperor Theodosius in 393 AD. But boxing was totally discontinued in 400 AD by Theodoric the Great as he deemed the sport an insult to God since it disfigures God’s image.

Today, modern boxing equipment are designed not only to produce effective results in a fight, but also protects boxers from serious injuries and possible deaths in the ring. Governing bodies of the sport have decreed that boxing equipment should pass safety standards and strict quality control before they be marketed for commercial

Boxer's Camp: A Prologue

When an athlete excels in any sport, most people talk about the skill, the talent, the heart. While they can all be that push any athlete to greatness, people tend to forget that athletes need equipment to succeed too. Any athlete’s capacities are amplified to a certain degree when using the right equipment.