Punch Cushion

By "punch cushion", I am referring to the amount of PERCEIVED knuckle protection. Some gloves appear to have lots of knuckle padding but feel stiff as hell and it hurts to punch. Also vice versa, some gloves seem slim from the outside but feel like pillows when you punch. Your glove's punch-cushioning qualities have a lot to do with the glove's construction and foam design.

Most punch cushioning issues result from the knuckle padding being made of only a single-layer foam (single density). The gloves will likely either be too soft or too hard. Soft foam hurts because it doesn't stop your knuckles from impacting the target and also wears out the quickest (especially when used for bagwork). Dense foam hurts because it don't mold to your knuckles when you punch. You might think dense foam will wear in and soften a little but it often goes straight from SUPER STIFF to SUPER SOFT. One cheap solution is to use soft foam but A LOT of it. However, this makes the gloves too bulky and also not ideal for bagwork because you can't feel the impact (no feedback) when you punch. Another cheap solution is to use a medium-density foam that is just barely dense enough for the heavy bag and almost soft enough for sparring. Single-layer foam gloves are at best, only suitable for one purpose (either sparring or bagwork).

The ideal cushion feeling is created using multi-layer foam of different densities, combining the cushioning of soft foam with the responsiveness of dense foam. There is also the addition of "orthopedic foam" a.k.a. memory foam which molds to you better than latex or EVA foam (which holds its shape). A multi-layer bag glove will probably have a soft foam (or orthopedic foam) on the inside and dense foam on the outside. A multi-layer training or sparring glove will add another soft layer on the outside to protect your sparring partner. The best brands have their own special foam "formulas" and use anywhere from 3-5 layers of foam.