I'm getting my first pair of MMA gloves soon which I'll be using for grappling and amateur competition, and I've narrowed it down to two different pairs I found on MMA Warehouse:
These Ones
and
These Other Ones
The first pair is more expensive, but has padding and a loop for the thumb. The second pair which is advertised as 'cage style' doesn't have any padding or restriction on the thumb at all, and is cheaper (it also goes better with my black shorts, haha).
I looked at a bunch of other pairs of gloves and the majority of them, including the official UFC Ouano gloves don't have thumb padding, which leads me to believe that is the norm. I've never sparred with MMA gloves before so I have no idea what the importance of thumb padding is or if it's even necessary.
So my question to the gear experts on Sherdog is: is thumb padding worth it at all on MMA gloves? Is it worth spending another $15 or so for it? OR, are these gloves crap and there are better alternatives in the price range that I don't know about? Please help a clueless, gloveless man
Thank you!
