How has the change in boxing glove size over the years effected boxing from a technical standpoint?

On gloves, they can use up to 12 ounces for fights in boxing

Boxing gloves serve a variety of purposes and there is a reason they come in different weights. The main reason boxers wear gloves is to protect their hands and to minimize the damage done to their faces when they are hit. Even John L Sullivan preferred gloves, but I think most of the time they were less than ten ounces!

Old timers had little padding. The punches were more impactful / hurtful and the material used was horse hair which split and nicked, causing far more cuts. The downside was more hand injuries, and sometimes waterlogged gloves.

Modern boxing gloves are designed to pad the knuckles and support the fighters' wrists and thumbs so they do not break on impact. The heavier a glove, the more padding and protection it offers.

Those smaller MMA gloves are just 4 ounces, but do an okay job protecting the hands compared to the old timer gloves.

Some boxing gloves are larger, best used for defense. Others less of a surface area, better used for offense

 

Bigger gloves also make blocking more effective/easier and there will be less focus on parrying as a result.

 

Bigger gloves cause more prolonged beatings..more brain damage and less knockouts. Bigger gloves actually cause more physical problems for fighters as they get older because they took more unnecessary punishment.

 

In the 20s and thirties there seemed to be more head and foot movement as compared to later eras generically speaking as the smaller surface are Protected less for blocking...had to move and or slip....later on more blocking and hands higher cause you could block !!!

 

The older lighter gloves that offered less protection often forced fighters to go to the body as its softer than the head.

The more padded gloves decreased the effectiveness of body shots and allowed better protection for more head shots.

 

I think it's more of the inverse with different techniques becoming mor effective.

Blocking is much more effective now.
You also have less to worry about your hand breaking so can afford to power punch harder spots on the head. And therefore you have to be less picky about your shots.
A power punch on the forehead no longer is an instant knuckle breaker

Body punching may be less effective but you also have less to worry about an elbow blocking your bodyshot and potentially harming your fist.

edit:forgot to add that body punching is still so often a fight changer.

 

I'd say the circumstances of the gloves to an extent combined with the rounds fought did play a role as to how they boxed each other.

The older era had more feinting, and body shots, with referees what allowed infighting and clinches as part of the game that today would lead to a warning and points taken away.

Cuts were worse back then due to the gloves. These days it's less of an issue.

 

Has anyone seriously studied the cause and effect re: the various changes in glove size and composition over time? How did these changes come about in the first place? What evidence do we have about whether technique evolved before or after the glove changes?

 

Fighters still feint all the time but they usually do so more subtly than in past eras. Most of the time, they feint with their heads and bodies while only moving their gloves an inch or two. The more exaggerated feints can be a liability in modern boxing if you use them too often because fighters have different defensive reactions to them. Instead of reaching out to try to parry punches or jumping out of fighting position, guys will just keep their guards tight and time you with jabs and counters.

 

This might help.

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