What size MMA gloves should you buy

Why size goes by your hand

Boxing glove guides usually tell you to pick the weight by your bodyweight: 12, 14 or 16 oz. That doesn’t apply to MMA gloves. Sparring gloves have a fixed weight, 7 oz for CUTLINE, and differ only in size. The only question is whether the glove sits right on your hand.

A glove that is too big slides on impact and the padding moves off your knuckles. One that is too small squeezes your fingers, and the finger loops rub after a few rounds. You feel this more in an MMA glove than a boxing glove, because your hand isn’t always a fist: you grab, grapple and open your palm.

How to measure with a tape

1. Use a soft tailor’s tape.
2. Wrap it around your stronger hand, below the knuckles, over the widest part of the palm. Leave your thumb out.
3. Keep the tape snug but don’t pull it tight.
4. Read the circumference in centimetres and compare it with the chart below.

How to measure with your phone

Few people have a tailor’s tape at hand, so we built a tool that measures on your phone screen. Lay your palm across the screen, drag two lines to the edges of your palm at knuckle height, and the tool works out your palm width.

Known phone models are recognised automatically. On others you first hold up any standard card, a bank card or ID. They all have the same width, so the phone learns how big a millimetre is on your screen.

A boundary belongs to the bigger size: exactly 21 cm is an L. This chart is for CUTLINE gloves. Other makers measure differently, some around the knuckles, some palm width in inches, so don’t copy your size from another brand.

If you’re between two sizes

When you land right on a boundary, decide by how you train:

• You wear long hand wraps under your gloves: go a size up, since the wraps take up room.
• You train without wraps or with short ones: the smaller size will fit tighter.

If your hand is smaller than the smallest size or larger than the largest, write to us before you order and we’ll check it together.

How to check the fit when they arrive

• Make a fist. The padding covers your knuckles with no empty space in front of your fingers.
• Your fingers go through the loops without squeezing, and your thumb sits in its protected section.
• The wrist strap closes with an overlap and holds firmly without cutting in.
• Open and close your hand a few times, as if grabbing. The glove shouldn’t move on your hand.

If the gloves don’t fit, you have 30 days from delivery to return them. A size exchange is handled as a return plus a new order, so the new pair ships right away. Details are on the Shipping and returns page.