As I mentioned in another thread, starting out after a long time away and I wanted to buy some gear for a gym. (We always sparred in the yard as kids if you know what I mean) I'm around LHW at 6' 185-190... So I'd think 16oz gloves would be suitable for sparring right? And do you recommend having a separate set of gloves for bag work? Basically keeping your sparring set clean and fresh for sparring only? And should you keep the 16oz gloves for bag work? or go lighter? I was looking at Rivals, but any glove brand recommendations would be appreciated. I was going to stay away from the velcro gloves... Just seemed like it could scratch somebody in sparring?
Yes, a different set for both sparring and bag work. Bag work tends to give gloves more of a beating. The padding gets a little compressed and loses the ability to "pad" punches, so in time you could be giving your sparring partners unnecessary punishment by using the same gloves for sparring. Never heard of issues with velcro gloves scratching anyone. In my experience, velcro's just fine. Just make sure they wrap all around the wrists. Gloves like the everlast pro-tex ones just strap across the wrist - but not wrap all the way around. Those get un-strapped very easily and it gets annoying during sparring. Regarding proper size to use, I prefer to go lighter - like 14 or 12 for bag, as I believe you can develop speed better with lighter gloves. Some prefer using the same size - 16 oz, so you are always accustomed to it. There are many opinions on this matter, but I haven't seen any clear argument for either. Sometimes it comes down to personal preference.
