Many believe that boxing gloves were brought in to protect the fighters as the force of the shot is spread over a larger area. After all, getting hit with a slightly padded glove will hurt a lot less than taking a bare fist straight to the jaw, right? Wrong. It turns out that gloves do not lessen the force applied to the brain as it rattles inside the skull from a heavy blow. In fact, they make matters worse by adding 10oz to the weight of the fist. This is a staggering fact to get your head round when you consider that a full-force punch, ungloved, to the head is comparable to being hit with a 12lb padded wooden mallet travelling at 20mph. Who would want to be a boxer?
