Combat Sports MaxSpar MMA Training Gloves

[maofas]

This review is a little bit different than the norm as instead of reviewing some shiny new product I just picked up, I'm writing a review of a pair of gloves I've used for the last 2+ years that I'm about to lay to rest. (So the reader should get an accurate idea of the durability/worksmanship.)

The Good:
These gloves are reaaally thick, about 2.25" of multi-layered padding. The alternating layers give it a nice balance of shock absorbtion and yielding-softness which is really nice for the person being hit. The best of any small gloves I've used by far.

For a point of reference: these are (guesstimate) 4x more cushioning for your partner than the normal CSI MMA training gloves (which I also have as a pair of loaner gloves).

The wrist strap gives very good support, though it does tend to leave a bit of a rough edge that can scratch people up during clinches. Your hands are left totally free to grab, open hand block, or grapple. The thick pads are cumbersome for trying to dig your hands under someone's chin for a choke, but aside from that, they seem fine.

The Bad:

Shortly after I received the glove, stitching along the edge piece of the wrist strap fell apart and needed to be restitched. Not too big a deal...

Eventually, however, the seam that holds the top padded section onto the hand compartment ripped apart (instead of finger loops, which also always seem to rip out of the padding, this has something almost like a weight-lifters glove, and basically the glove tore itself in two along the side) making the glove useless. Luckily my gf is into crafting/fabrics/weaving-type stuff and was able to restitch it.

Almost a year later, the exact same thing happened to the other glove. Again, repaired after much begging and reminding.

This really pisses me off because it seems almost every piece of gear I buy, it's always the stitching that breaks first and I really liked these gloves for the amount of protection they provided.

While I DO think they did **** job with the stitching, I also want to point out that the design of the glove, while great for protecting your partner, totally encourages this rip to happen, because unlike more form-fitting gloves you have a big flat floppy pad on the back of your hand that gets pushed around which works like a lever (using your hand/knuckles as the fulcrum) to place stress on the side seams.

Conclusion:

The durability/workmanship is suspect, but if you want to go hard-contact without 16 oz, these are good gloves to do it in. (The shock absorbancy is actually better than a lot of low-end 16 oz imo.)

[dwkfym]

this is very very well written

[Neo Sigma]

My big problem with these was the finger loops. They were extremely uncomfortable, really digging into the skin between my knuckles. Considering they only come in two sizes and I got the bigger one, I didn't really get much use out of them.