Getting adequate wrist support from your boxing gloves is critical in preventing common hand injuries in combat sports and training pain-free for longer.
My top choice of boxing gloves for wrist support remains the Hayabusa T3 for its value for money as still one of the more advanced glove technologies for protecting fighters’ hands and wrists.
I’ve carefully hand-picked several more glove options that offer wrist support but for separate training needs, so keep scrolling to learn more about each option.
Ladies might want to check our specialized article, the best boxing gloves for women if you want more options for style and leaner hands. And for those that want to dig in hard on the bag, check out the best boxing gloves for heavy bags, instead. Otherwise, keep reading here.
Table of Contents
Top pick gloves for wrist support
Below you’ll find the selection of all glove options that will give you good wrist support for different needs like sparring, bag, kickboxing-specific, and more.
Here’s a summary of every option:
- Top pick:
Hayabusa T3 for high-grade wrist support and decent price — Buy — Jump to review - Budget: Ringside Apex Flash for decent wrist stability for the price — Buy — Jump to review
- Pro: Winning Training Gloves for the elite boxer with a premium price — Jump to review
- Muay Thai: Anthem Athletics Stormbringer II is a good kickboxing option — Jump to review
- All-Rounder: Venum Elite for great punch cushioning and reliable strapping — Buy — Jump to review
- Heavy bag: Fairtex BGV9 is the choice designed for heavy-hitting impact — Buy — Jump to review
- Sparring: Rival RS2V 2.0 for ergonomic support in sparring practice — Buy — Jump to review
- Wrap-less: ONX X-4 for elite wrist stability without the hand wraps — Jump to review
To get the full lowdown on each option, keep scrolling to learn the good and bad about each.
Hayabusa T3 Boxing Gloves
Hayabusa T3 gloves have the best double wrist lock system, based on my experience. It gives a tight hold to the wrist without compromising overall hand comfort.
The glove also does an excellent job of absorbing punch impact. It has thick and dense knuckle padding that goes until the back fist for optimum hand support.
These gloves are suitable for tons of purposes. Good on the bag, good on the mitts, and also perform well in sparring.
What they’re not ideal for is Muay Thai or kickboxing fighters because you most likely need more wrist flexibility — which these won’t provide.
For the overall level of wrist protection, style options, and affordability, the Hayabusa T3 glove remains my top pick for wrist support.
Ringside Apex Flash
What would a top list be without a budget option? That’s where these Ringside gloves fit in.
They offer a decent level of wrist support for most beginners and intermediates, and they’re very affordable.
The wrist closure is a single strap but wraps around and secures very tight and gives reasonably good stability up to the back of the hand.
Some fighters find these gloves larger-sized, so you might want to consider that when choosing a size.
But if you need a budget option that still has the benefits of reliable wrist support, then the Ringside Apex Flash is a decent choice.
Winning Boxing Gloves
You might have already heard of the Winning brand before. They’re often regarded as the absolute top brand for professional-grade hardware for your money-makers.
Boxing pro’s the world over are using Winning gloves to compete in, as well as in training when budget allows — as these gloves are not cheap to replace!
They’re laced gloves (but there are some velcro options out there, too), which give a professional boxer’s level of wrist protection so you can hit hard.
These gloves are designed to be used in a professional fight, so you can trust in their design as they are flawlessly crafted by Japanese ingenuity.
If you have a big budget for your next gloves and you want a pair that will perform excellently during sparring, or a main fight, then Winning is the pick for you.
Anthem Athletics Stormbringer II
The Anthem Athletics Stormbringer II is a glove that’s good enough for a variety of martial arts.
You can use it in Muay Thai, kickboxing, Boxing, and even MMA sparring, with its hefty padding on the glove and flexibility in the wrists for grabbing opponents.
Its flexible wrist area has a wide single-strap velcro that does a decent job of holding and supporting the wrist.
It’s beneficial for kickboxing styles, but pure boxers might need to consider a more supportive option.
Venum Elite Boxing Gloves
Venum Elite is a budget-friendly glove that has a wide velcro strap, covering your wrist nicely.
Venum Elite is a good choice for casual boxers who need additional wrist support.
Because of its excellent knuckle padding, most of the punch impact is absorbed. The remaining impact is spread efficiently through the glove and into the forearm.
This is a comfortable glove and useful for plenty of situations, it’s a bit of an all-rounder without specializing in any one area. Sometimes that can be a bad thing, though.
They’re nice minimalist-styled gloves and look great to wear.
The wrist support is decent here, but if you’re looking for ultimate protection then check my top picks instead.
Fairtex BGV9
The BGV9 by Fairtex is a glove that I’ve already recommended for using on the bag because of its very dense padding around the fist, but also its wrist support.
It’s a worthy addition to this list, too, because although it has a single velcro strap to secure, it’s pretty good at keeping a firm attachment in place.
Though I much prefer dual-strapping systems for gloves when wrist support is the priority.
It’s a little less bendy at the wrist than most Fairtex Muay Thai-styled gloves due to its design for the bag. So it comes in handy when considering overall wrist support, as well.
I think it’s a decent option if you’re looking for a well-priced glove that you can use quite happily between various training styles.
Use it on the bag, on the mitts, and in kickboxing sparring too. It’s a robust glove option.
Rival RS2V 2.0 Sparring Gloves
Rival enter this list with the RSV2 2.0 because it’s a good option if sparring is your main activity.
These gloves have a thick microfibre padding of multiple layers that makes it safe to use in sparring, while the Ergo Xtreme Strap System keeps your wrist in place.
The strap is still a singular one, but it is a more ergonomic angle than simply straight across your wrist.
This angled strap gives better stability from the wrist into the hand and should result in fewer injuries if that is an issue for you in your current sparring activity.
It’s not my favorite option, especially as the price is a little higher than comparable options on this list (which are better, in my opinion).
X-4 Training Gloves
The X-4 training gloves are the latest variant of Trevor Wittman’s gloves, the upgrade to the X-Factor boxing glove, which has been one of his claims to fame recently.
Other than being the head coach of various MMA stars, like Justin Gaethje and Kamaru Usman, of course.
Joe Rogan and many professional fighters in the sport love the gloves. And for a good reason.
The gloves are the first true wrap-less boxing glove option on the market, as they aim to completely eradicate the need for wraps and replace it with perfectly fitted gloves with superior stability.
Hand wraps are typically used just to fill up dead space inside a boxing glove because any air pockets lead to significant and recurrent injuries for many fighters.
The ONX Sports line changes all that by giving you a glove designed to fit your hand shape after a first heat molding. It will also adapt over time with use to wear in that ideal shaping for your fist.
They go one further by having an X-shaped dual strapping system that “locks in” the wrist into the palm of the glove, enabling an incredibly stable connection from your wrist to your fist and keeping everything in a neat line.
When your punches are delivering with good form, and your wrist is stable enough that it doesn’t tweak off to one side, you’ll have far fewer injuries or pain.
If you have the funds to pay for this premium-priced glove, it will probably be the best buy for wrist support and training.
Guide to choosing the right glove for wrists
There are a few primary features of boxing gloves that you want to keep in mind, especially when you need extra wrist support.
Backhand and wrist stability
There are plenty of gloves out there that essentially have no stability from the wrist to the back of your hand.
This is most commonly seen in gloves designed for Muay Thai or Kickboxing, or they claim to be an “all-rounder” type of glove.
If, for any reason, you don’t have a good level of strength in your wrists, then using these gloves for regular or heavy training is a really bad idea.
Just because the glove straps around your wrist, it doesn’t actually mean it’s protecting your wrist joint.
There needs to be some structure over the back of the hand that connects the backhand to the wrist and keeps your punching position in a straight line.
If your punch isn’t in a straight line, you’re striking with bad form, and it’ll easily cause problems for your wrist joint.
So when you are choosing your glove for wrist support in mind, find out if the glove has the stability I’ve described here. My top pick, the Hayabusa T3, already does this excellently.
Glove weights can suit different hand sizes
If the reason you need a glove for wrist support is that your wrists and hands are particularly small (like mine) then you might want to check out my selection of the best boxing gloves for small hands.
When choosing, remember that the higher glove size/weight you choose (e.g., 14oz, 16oz) could mean the glove is also bigger in dimensions.
If the hand compartment and wrist entry of the glove get bigger, you’re creating more space inside the glove that needs to be filled.
Too much space inside the glove is a bad thing. That space means air pockets, which allow your hand to move around too much, and that doesn’t give you the proper protection for your hand or wrist.
You’ll end up having to stuff your glove with hand wraps just to try to make up the space.
So that’s why you want to consider your hand size (usually measured in circumference) as part of your decision-making.
If you’re on the smaller side of the wrist and hand, a glove size of 8 oz, 10oz or 12oz could be perfect for you as long as you are planning to use them mostly for mitts/pad work.
But you must also consider other factors, which is what I’ll cover next.
Know your goals and measurements
Hand size/circumference is one aspect of choosing the type of glove and the size you go for.
You also want to consider what you will use the glove for and your body weight.
While boxing gloves may all look identical, some gloves are better for some purposes, which is usually one of three: mitts/pad work, bag, or sparring.
Mitts/pad work gloves usually require the least level of padding because you’re limited by how hard you can hit the pads your coach is holding for you.
So you could consider just about any glove size (8oz – 18oz) that you feel comfortable with for mitts.
Bag gloves usually need a higher degree of padding over the knuckles and support for the wrists, but this doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger-sized glove.
For the bag, you should probably consider glove sizes that resemble the closest match to your hand circumference, which could be 10oz – 14oz, with a focus on padding and no dead space inside the glove.
Sparring gloves are almost always the biggest size glove you should wear. This isn’t to protect yourself but to protect your sparring partner.
So that’s where 16oz gloves are usually the minimum size for sparring in most gyms, and 18oz are necessary if you’re a very large/heavy fighter.