The question is, what does a company that has been making Boxing equipment for over 100 year know about Mixed Martial Arts equipment? The answer is, a heck of a lot! I will admit, that when I originally heard that Everlast was getting into MMA Equipment, I approached with a curious brow as many other people do. However, I was willing to check out the products because I have had good experiences with some of the boxing related equipment produced by Everlast, such as the Nevatear® Training Bags, which I currently use. I am glad that I did, because these MMA gloves are the best that I use, and that’s saying a lot, because I have MMA gloves from some of the other top vendors in the industry. I trained with these gloves for about 2 weeks, using them for pad work, sparring and bag work sessions. Here is what I love about these gloves, and what you probably will as well.
There were several things that I noticed immediately as soon as I tried the gloves on. This was before I even bothered to read the product manual. First off all, the gloves are contoured, similar to when u wear a boxing glove, so it puts your hand into the natural fist position. Everlast actually calls this the C3 Foam Technology. The C3 stands for Contoured Closed Cell, and it is designed to provide maximum protection during impact.
The next thing I noticed about these gloves were the wristlock strap system, which actually has 3 velcro connections to ensure that the wrist guard is secure and tight on your wrist. The wrist strap is also really thick, and made out of leather, to give you extra protection and makes sure you keep your wrist straight when you are striking. There is also a foam section between the wrist strap and the main striking surface, which just provides some additional protection.
The final thing that I noticed right away was that the gloves have a small foam cushion around the thumb area, which gives you some extra protection in the thumb area in the event you use that area of your hand for a block, ridgehand strikes or while grappling. The fact that the entire glove is made with premium quality leather will allow the product to be long lasting and durable.
One feature that I didn’t immediately notice but that I was impressed with as I read the manual was that the glove has the EverDRI lining which provides moisture wicking as well as antimicrobial protection. I absolutely loved this feature, because after my recent bout with MRSA, I have been extremely concerned with cleanliness. This feature helps protect your skin from harmful bacteria and other microbial germs and viruses. Also, the fact that the has an open palm area will aid in keeping it clean, since it will allow you to spray the product down with any type of equipment sanitizer, and make sure you reach all the creveses in the glove.
I used the gloves for several light sparring sessions during a recent MMA class and both my partner and I were happy with the gloves. My partner reported that the strikes that he felt with the gloves did not feel too hard during impact. I also used the gloves for 2 Muay Thai classes in the past week, and did several rounds of pad work. The 7 oz. gloves are light weight enough for quick strikes from me as well. They are a nice balance of comfortability and protection, while not sacrificing hand speed.
Earlier this week, I did a few rounds of bag work with the gloves where I did mostly boxing. I mixed up the rounds doing 3 rounds of all strikes, 1 round of just back hand and ridge hand strikes, and 1 round of all hooks and uppercuts. The gloves were great for bag work, although I did experience some blistering on my knuckle area by the end of the session. There are actually two reasons that I attribute to this. The first one, is that these gloves are sized L/XL. I usually use a S/M on my gloves but since I am thinking of using these gloves for sparring and potentially MMA fights, I decided that if I got them one size bigger so it would give me extra room for having my hands wrapped. That leads me to the second factor of while I got some blistering, which was that I didn’t wrap my hands! I know that if I had my hands wrapped during my heavy bag session, I would not have had any blistering. I think a pair of the Everlast Quick Wraps would work the best for hand protection while using the MMA Leather Striking Gloves during a training session.
Now, I wanted to make sure I gave you guys the best and most honest review possible on this product, so I really went over these gloves with a fine tooth comb and evaluated possible advantage as well as every possible flaw with these gloves. My only concern after the first examination, was that the stitching holds the leather finger strap on to the glove may come loose over time, because it appeared to me that there was only one stitch at the top of each glove holding it on. However, after I reviewed it a bit closer I found that in fact Everlast has used a double stiching up along the inside of each finger area to fasten them to the glove. In addition, they added one extra double stitch at the top of each glove, which is seperate from the first layer of stitching. If you look at these gloves, you will notice that the primary stitching is in black, while the extra stitch is yellow.
Everlast definitely did their research and has delivered a top quality product for a serious Mixed Martial Artist. I would definitely recommend these gloves for anyone doing steady training in a striking art, or purely in MMA.
For other Everlast products, please feel free to visit the Everlast Section of my website.