Blitz Centurion Boxing Gloves Review

Blitz Centurion Boxing Gloves (16oz) Review

Brand

Blitz Sport is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of premium and approved martial arts equipment, offering everything from boxing gloves to Aikido Bokken to Ninja suits. While they also stock a range of other brands on their website they also have a very broad range of equipment made under their own label, for all kinds of martial art.

About the gloves

The Centurion boxing gloves are part of a range of gloves that Blitz offer and are advertised as a multi-purpose glove suitable for boxing, kickboxing, semi/full contact and general ring work. They’re available from 10-16oz, and Blitz sent Fight Quality a 16oz pair to try out and give our opinions on.

Visuals

Blitz’s Centurion gloves only come in one colour variation – black and gold. The majority of the glove is a textured (we’ll get to that later) black, with a bar of gold material on the back of the wrist, inside of the fingers and on the back and base of the thumb. ‘BLITZ’ is printed, also in gold, on the back of the hand and on the wrist strap.

I have to say that I’m normally not the biggest fan of gold on boxing gloves. Highlights here and there are fine, but when a big chunk of a glove is made of that metallic gold material I just feel like it looks garish and more than slightly pretentious. However, I think Blitz has found the correct approach to take when you start throwing gold about during the design and have gone for an understated, matte colour with that same textured finish and I think it actually highlights the gloves far better than a metallic finish would, and makes them way better looking.

Below you can find our Fight Gear Focus video giving you a close-up, visual look at these Gloves. Make sure you check out the rest of the video series and Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of our future videos.

Materials/Craftsmanship

Blitz use their own trademarked ‘Nama Hide’ leather for the Centurion gloves, but despite what the name suggests the gloves contain no animal products and are made from a synthetic leather. Traditionally synthetic gloves don’t have the same durability as a real leather pair, but I’ve not seen any signs of wear and tear during the time I’ve been testing these gloves.

Overall the gloves are well made, and offer quite good protection from the pre-curved, foam injected padding. However, the padding feels quite soft compared to other gloves I’ve tested which, even though the padding is sufficient, does feel like they offer a bit less protection. I’ve also noticed that the leather is bunched up quite a bit on the curve of the knuckles, which could lead to more soft tissue injuries if they connect with your opponent during sparring. The textured material is another concern of mine, it’s obviously slightly rougher than standard leather and potentially could increase the friction during sparring impacts – I haven’t had any issues with this personally, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re after sparring gloves.

Comfort/use

As I said already the soft padding in the gloves does give the impression of less protection than other 16oz pairs. The gloves are also a bit tight when you first put them on, which improves slightly when they’re broken in a bit.

However, the long wrist portion provides good support, and overall I have found the gloves to be good for general, all round training and they do make a solid beginner glove.

Cost

Available on the Blitz website for £27.99 I think the Centurions are pretty good value for money. I’d recommend them to a beginner looking for their first pair of gloves, but if you’re looking for a pair of sparring gloves there are probably some better alternatives out there.