Apples and Oranges: Gloves

Tactically, the larger boxing gloves provide both offensive and defensive advantages. Defensively the size of the gloves allows a fighter to pull the gloves near the body to deflect blows, almost making the gloves mobile hand shields. Since the gloves are smaller in MMA, it opens more holes and angles in a fighter's defense allowing an attacker to more easily penetrate the aforementioned defense.

Offensively the larger gloves creates more surface area for a fighter's punches. This has two tactical effects. First, it allows the fighter to land more blows due to the increase in the area of attack. The second effect is the ability to throw more powerful punches (see below for explanation). For MMA the smaller gloves means it is harder to land a successful punch. For instance a glancing blow in boxing becomes a miss in MMA, and a partial blow in boxing becomes a glancing blow in MMA and so forth.

There are also variations of gloves, for instance there are 'speed' gloves and 'power' gloves. These are often employed in training exercises. There exists no such specialization for MMA gloves.

There is also the balance of physics that needs to be taken into account. Smaller gloves mean smaller surface area, which means a smaller area of which the force generated in a punch can dissipate. This would lead one to conclude that an MMA glove creates a more 'powerful' punch then a boxing glove. However this is not true for several reasons. First is the issue of protection. The MMA glove provides less protection for the hand of the attacker then a boxing glove, thus his body's bio-mechanics prevent him from throwing a punch with greater overall power then a boxing punch.

Think of it this way, try hitting a solid object with your hand. Then repeat the same action but add a layer of padding. Your hand is protected so you are able to generate more force without damaging your tissue as you did without the padding. Thus the more protection the body has the more force it can generate when dealing a blow. Part of that ability to generate more force comes from the added weight and volume. This action occurs due to one's own bio-mechanics.

Why is it then that boxers can take dozens if not hundreds of punches to the head whereas mixed-martial arts fighters take relatively few? This can be explained by the increase surface area and padding. The increased surface area and padding dissipates the larger force over a larger surface area, so its effects are less then the smaller glove on the smaller surface area with the smaller force. In essence, a boxing strike is at 100lbs per square inch, but lands over 50 inches, a MMA strike lands at 30lbs per square inch over 5 inches. The difference in force received by area is 2 to 6 respectively (these numbers are fictional to demonstrate a point). Thus the body feels a more 'powerful' blow from an MMA strike though in fact the boxing strike was in fact the more 'powerful' blow. An MMA blow should be described as more impactful rather than powerful. However, in the example the human body is still absorbing that total force, 100 versus 30 respectively. The MMA punch is less powerful but more impactful then the boxing punch. The difference in total force absorbed is a reason why boxer's risk long term mental health issues, compared to mixed martial arts fighters. However it should be pointed out that with the young nature of MMA there are relatively few older fighters to test this hypothesis on.

But there is a viable comparison in the sporting world. American football players wear copious amounts of protection where as rugby players do not. Which sport is more violent or physical? The answer is clearly football, as the players throw their bodies around with unnatural force. For instance plowing into an opponent while leading with one's shoulder with no football pads would result in a broken clavicle. That is why rugby players do not lead with their shoulders down as football players. Since the padding dissipates the force, a football player is able to operate above normal threshold forces for their body. However there is a caveat, not all of the energy and force is being dissipated through the pads. A great deal is being absorbed by the entire human body. The unnatural exertion and punishment of such forces can be attributed to the numerous health issues football players face later in life.