BOXING can often lead to conflict and disagreement, especially when it comes to the biggest names in the sport on fight week.
Glove selection is a contentious aspect of fight week. Both fighters and their camps will inspect the gloves and decide which ones they will use on fight night.
In their third and entertaining fight, Deontay Wilder was knocked out by Tyson Fury
This is often a smooth process. However, as Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder showed, it's sometimes not.
Wilder had made accusations about Fury's gloves in their 2020 second fight, and the Bronze Bomber was not happy that Fury chose the same type of glove for the trilogy.
Fury is known for wearing horsehair-material gloves. Wilder, however, has worn foam padding throughout his career. Both are legal.
Why are fighters so obsessed with glove selection? SunSport has compiled all the information you need about this important aspect of fight week and the differences between two types of gloves.
What's the difference between horsehair gloves and foam-padded boxing gloves
This is a simple explanation: one glove has horsehair, and the other has foam.
However, horsehair gloves are a long-standing tradition. It has been a hotly contested topic in recent years.
Horsehair padding offers less protection for your hands and your opponent's faces. It is therefore favoured by those who consider themselves to be knockout artists or have very heavy hands.
Although horsehair gloves are tough, they can absorb sweat more quickly than foam, so the padding will wear down faster.
Horsehair gloves, also known as a "puncher's glove", are used often by fighters who have a Mexican style or seek to stop their fights.
After SugarHill Steward, a Kronk coach, trained Fury to KO Wilder, Fury donned Paffen-branded gloves to both the rematch as well as the trio against Wilder.
Paffen gloves are made with horsehair padding instead of foam padding like most modern boxing gloves.
After Wilder's second fight ended in seven rounds and Wilder was defeated in seven, Wilder complained that Fury's gloves were too thin. Fury also claimed that Fury's punches had left a mark on his face.
Wilder often wears Everlast Powerlock gloves. These gloves use a PVC foam-latex mixture for padding.
Foam-padded gloves have been more popular in recent decades because they protect your hands and absorb shocks better than horsehair gloves.
Wilder discovered that Fury was using the same gloves in their trilogy. However, he decided to use Everlast MX, a horsehair foam mix, instead.
Floyd Mayweather was another fighter opposed to horsehair gloves. He often insisted that his fight contracts stated that his opponents were not allowed to use gloves that had that type of padding.
Conor McGregor was banned from using horsehair in their fight back in 2017.
Marcos Maidana was forced to change his gloves from horsehair and foam to fight week 2014 after Mayweather's glove inspection. He wasn't impressed by Maidana's choice.
Maidana ended wearing Grant-branded gloves that Mayweather wore throughout his long and successful career.
Grant gloves are the most popular gloves for people who need to protect their hands. They were the perfect choice for Mayweather who suffered from hand injuries often.
The most well-known boxing glove brands
- Everlast - worn by Terence Crawford, Errol Spencer
- Grant- Worn by Gervonta and Floyd Mayweather
- Cleto Reyes, worn by Manny Pacquiao
- Winning - worn by Josh Warrington, Naoya Inoue
- Rival- worn in by Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Uzyk, Vasyl Lomachenko
- Paffen - Tyson Fury
- Adidas - worn by Anthony Yarde, Daniel Dubois
- Fly - worn by Dillian Howte, Lawrence Okolie
- No Boxing No Life- worn by Canelo Avarez
