Hey guys today I am reviewing Ring to Cage's Amateur Hybrid MMA Glove. With all the good talk about Ring to Cage I had to see for myself. This is one of several MMA gloves offered by Ring to Cage and can be bought here. www.ringtocage.com. This glove sells for $59.95 and is nearly the most expensive glove they offer second only to one of the same design but fitted for women. I want to thank Mohsin for his customer service over the phone and through email. He is eager to answer any questions that you may have, and for me customer service is a huge check in the box when ordering from a company.
The Design: This glove uses the two piece knuckle padding of a Japanese Pride/Dream style glove. This style of padding is thicker over the knuckles when compared to a Western style glove. The biggest drawback of the Pride style glove to me is the finger loops. The fingers easily slip out of that style of glove during scrambles. This glove solves that by using the Western style finger loops that sit deeper on the finger and are much more enclosed. This glove has an attached thumb that features an almond shape pad that seems more ergonomic than most square or two piece thumb pads that several gloves have. The glove features a Dual strap wrist closure as found in Hayabusa MMA gloves and a few others. The glove is lined with Ring to Cage's Dri Max liner, which is similar to Everlast's Ever Dri and is there to wick away moisture and keep the glove smelling relatively fresh. MMA gloves don't have the same problem with staying soaked in sweat and smelling as boxing gloves but it is still a nice feature. I do have to say that Ring to Cages liner is softer than my leather Protex 2s.
The Construction: Right out of the package my first impression is that these gloves very light are well made. They weigh in at 7oz which is 3oz heavier than your average Western fight glove but 1-2oz heavier than most training gloves. They are all Leather and come in black and brown with white piping. The stitching on these is straight and consistent with no loose threads or skipped/popped threads. A lot of gloves that have piping are not usually stitched this well, it too is straight and well done. The Dual Strap system is strong and well attached. The elastic strap is tight and very thick but stretches enough to support the wrist quite well. The thumb pad is not sandwiched in the glove between the leather like with the knuckle padding. It is attached on top of the glove much like the pad on the back of Japanese pride gloves are. The stitching on the thumb pad is consistent with the quality of the rest of the glove, and that is good.
Fit and Use: I am the type of person who always wraps his hands no matter what. With an MMA glove that can be a little tricky. I use Twins wraps that are 196" which is fairly long. It took a few different wrapping styles to find which one felt the most comfortable with this glove but still offered support. This glove is L/XL and is all leather and as with most leather gloves it was a little tight at first but after using them a few times the leather stretched out a bit and are actually quite comfortable. On The Bag: Most MMA gloves are no picnic for bag use. These gloves however were pretty good. The dual wrist straps give good support and the padding on these gloves is quite firm which is much better for your knuckles than if the padding was softer.On The Mitts: I like these gloves on the mitts better than the bag. After several rounds my knuckles felt fine and my wrists were not screaming so that is always a plus. I really liked the padded thumb for those hooks and uppercuts that did not land quite as intended. I had no problem going full power on the mitts.MMA Sparring: The Hybrid gloves performed really well for this application. As I mentioned earlier the padding is really firm, so I would not go full power even with head gear. Unless you’re sparring partner took the last Krispy Kreme from the box or something like that. The gloves are padded enough though for plenty of head punching goodness. As far as grappling the gloves do not hinder your grip other than the fact that you have gloves on. Anyone who has rolled with and without gloves can appreciate what I mean. I also used these gloves for circuit training and they were comfortable while doing quick bag work, GNP, pull-ups, jump rope etc.
Overall Impressions: I feel that Ring to Cage has a real winner with this glove. They have taken the best features of Japanese and Western designs and put them all into one versatile glove. I have trained with several MMA gloves and most don't hold up well. I am not talking about durability but rather overall performance. Lots of gloves do well in certain areas but poor in others. I feel that this is the best overall MMA glove I have used and am pleased to have it. If you want an overall well made training glove that offers more protection than the average glove, than this is your man.
Japanese Style Gloves
Common Western Style Gloves
This ended up being my favorite wrapping method:
The wrap ends up making a nice fist bar
They pretty much look like the Combat Sports Ammy gloves.
http://www.combatsports.com/images/FG%204_l.jpg
Sort of, the padding over the knuckles and back of the hand is different. It is like the glove below glove plus the thumb pad from the Ammy one. Can't say as far as the CS quality goes though, never used either of those ones.
Good review either way. We pretty much only use the CS gloves at our gym.
Not sure why you posted those PRIDE gloves. Those are the replica "fan gloves". They are not meant for fighting or training, so basing your review on them might not be so accurate.
Also as far as Ring To Cage goes, it looks like they just contact other gear manufacrueres, and just rebrand it with the RtC logo.
Rival is going after them for rebranding their gloves and punch mitts.
They also have a clear rip off of Sprawl's gi pants.
I wouldn't be surprised if those gloves are just rebranded CSI gloves shown above.
PTSandman - Not sure why you posted those PRIDE gloves. Those are the replica "fan gloves". They are not meant for fighting or training, so basing your review on them might not be so accurate.
I was not basing my review off of those pride gloves bud, just showing them as an example on the design of Japanese style gloves. I actually used to have Thunder Fight Gear's Japanese/Pride gloves. Those are what I was basing my experiance on. I am pretty sure that now the CSI/Ringside stuff is made in China and Ring to Cage is from Pakistan, They use the same factory as alot of other companies so the designs are the same/similar but I would not say they Re-brand all of their stuff. I have some IMF's and Ring to Cage's MiM. Nearly identical glove but different leather, different sized hand compartment, and quality of construction. I know that some companies are in a bit of an uproar but I guess time will tell how that goes. Either way, everything I have from them is pretty good and the customer service is WAY better than Rinside/CSI when it come to returning emails and phone calls.
Oh yeah, no doubt their products are good quality, but it seems they are just rebranding others, and not putting out anything new or innovative. If they want to go that route, why not price it to move, to get the name out there?