Gear Guru Alex sits down today to review four of the most popular sparring gloves for Boxing, Muay Thai, and general striking. The lineup is:
- Adidas Hybrid 300
- Rival RS11V
- Fairtex BGV9
- Revgear S3
Starting with the Adidas Hybrid 300, the glove is primarily a boxing glove, indicated by the longer wrist cuff. This helps keep the wrist straight and supported while striking. The Hybrid 300 has a great amount of padding, including a built up section next to the thumb also. The padding also isn't too stiff to restrict the wearer from closing their fist and isn't too soft to be all but useless while sparring.
The Rival RS11V is widely celebrated by a lot of Boxers for sparring. It's plain to see, with the well reinforced stitching and sturdy construction. To Alex, they feel as if they run small. The unique strap system is a love or hate deal as it differs greatly from the usual systems boxing gloves go for, with a seatbelt style strap that uses a plastic loop inside the glove to help lock everything in. Either way you look at it the RS11V is a top pick of Boxers the world over, for good reason.
The Fairtex BGV9 is the Thai Boxing Giant's entry into Boxing Gloves, and is a very slimline glove with high quality construction and design. The glove is a lot longer than the usual Fairtex Gloves, and like the RS11V, the strap placement is a little different to the standard. While the BGV9 uses the typical wrist strap, the placement is further to the middle instead of being further back. With a wrap, this glove is almost flawless as a bag glove, but it falls short in the padding department. The Adidas and Rival gloves have superb amounts of padding as sparring gloves, but the BGV9 has the least out of the four.
The Revgear S3 has a similar fit to the Hybrid 300, with enough room and enough softness of padding to properly close a fist. The wrist isn't as long as the Adidas, but has a great deal of extra padding along the inside palm/wrist area. Where the Revgear S3 falls short is on bags, whereas the other three gloves in the lineup could easily function well as bag gloves (notably the BGV9). Interestingly, one of Alex's downsides to the S3 is the visual design of the glove.
The final thoughts is that the Hybrid 300 and S3 are the top personal picks, with the addition that the Fairtex and Rival gloves are superb choices in their own right.
