To clear up some confusion seen in this thread about the ‘Kid Gloves’ phrase. Boxing gloves were intended to protect the face of the boxer being hit, not the hands of the boxer throwing the punch. The gloves spread the impact of a punch over a greater area and reduce the incidence of broken facial bones and cuts. They don’t do much to protect the brain of a boxer being hit because they allow the puncher to hit with more force without breaking the bones in his hand. In effect they do protect the hands of the boxer, but that was not their intent.
I can understand the confusion because even the wiki article on boxing glovesmakes this same mis-statement, confusing the intent with the actual effect.
But wiki redeems itself in this article about Jack Broughtonwho introduced modern boxing gloves in training:
I liken boxing gloves to football pads. People from England and such all too often say, “American football is a sissy game, they wear all those pads so they won’t get hurt! Rugby is a real sport!” I respond with, “You misunderstand why they wear pads. Helmets and shoulder pads allow football players to hit each other harder. Just like boxing; boxing gloves aren’t there to protect the hands, they’re worn to give the boxers a heavier weapon to hit with.”
There’s no doubt the effect of gloves is to allow punchers to hit harder without damaging their hands. Training gloves demonstrate this. They need much more padding to protect boxers in training, including protecting the hands. Boxers train to punch hard enough to injure their hands even while taped and gloved in matches. Most of the tape is used to wrap the hand tight so that bones don’t seperate at the knuckle. They’re not allowed to have too much cloth or tape over the knuckles because it increases how hard a boxer can hit. There have been many scandals over the years involving tampering with gloves and taping. Jack Dempsey’s hands were alleged to be coated in plaster in his victory over Jess Willard, something recently duplicated by boxer Antonio Margarito. In case about 20 years ago trainer Panama Lewis was removing padding from his fighters gloves during the course of a bout. A variety of boxers have been accused of over-wrapping their hands.
But the original intent of boxing gloves was to protect the faces of the boxers getting hit. John L. Sullivan Himself was a proponent of boxing gloves, hoping to turn the bare-knuckle form of the sport into a ‘scientific’ sport more acceptable to the general public.