Recoil Sports Cobra Boxing Glove Review

Update: Recoil sports have now stopped trading, so these gloves are no longer available to buy, although we’ll leave the reviews up for reference. We’ve been informed that these gloves were manufactured by UMA, so you can likely get a very similar glove made by visiting their website or getting in contact with them.

Recoil Sports Cobra Boxing Gloves (16oz) Review

Brand

Recoil Sports are a new brand founded in 2016 by Benjamin Bonness, who had a dream to create great quality fight gear at affordable prices. They intend to release a whole range of boxing equipment including heavy bags and pads, with a focus on developing a reputation for quality and customer service. For now, they’re not available in shops, so you’re only going to find them at recoilsports.co.uk. The brand sent us a 16oz pair of their first line of gloves, the Cobra Boxing Gloves to test out and give our opinion on.

About the gloves

The Cobra Boxing Glove is Recoil Sports flagship glove and at the time of writing they’re the only boxing product currently offered by Recoil. Available in a flash looking white a gold and coming in 12, 14 and 16oz they can be used for any sort of training.

Weight and distribution

As expected the majority of the weight is packed round the knuckles and the thumb, providing all the protection you could need in the ring. The palm of the gloves are also padded, and they feature a build in grip bar. Coupled with a four inch wide wrist strap these provide balance to the gloves that makes them feel great when you use them. They have a fixed thumb which sits quite naturally on the fist and it’s quite a broad thumb meaning you have some space within it to hold a natural position. As a bonus Recoil have also built in a thumb guard, not quite as significant as other gloves we’ve reviewed before, for example the Warrior Fight Wear Storm Boxing Gloves, but enough to provide some protection against hitting your thumb of the pads, and more importantly to prevent accidentally catching your sparring with your thumb.

Visuals

As their first pair of boxing gloves, Recoil Sports have only made these available in white and gold for now, but we’ve been told that more colours are about to be added to the range soon. We can’t wait to see what the alternative colours will be! The main body of the gloves is all white, with a gold thumb, gold wrist strap and golden trim round the cuff. The back of the hand has the Recoil cobra logo printed in gold, and the wrist strap has a white patch with Recoil Sports and the Cobra logo in shining gold print.

Overall the gloves look crisp and modern, with the current colour choice putting them at the flashier end of the spectrum.

Materials

Part of Recoils brand aim is to provide top quality gloves made from top quality materials, so they’ve chosen 100% cow hide leather, which is going to make sure that these gloves hold together long term – I’ve been using these gloves for several weeks now and there’s no signs of and wear from the materials.

The inner lining of the Cobra’s is a brilliant bonus, they’ve got a moisture repellant lining that is not only really effective it’s also insanely comfortable. It has a neoprene feel, like a wetsuit, and makes wearing the gloves for long sessions a pleasure.

Craftsmanship

This was another area Recoil Sports wanted to focus on, and they’ve hit the nail on the head. All the gloves are completely handmade meaning there’s none of the small lapses of quality you can get with mass produced gloves. The leather has been bunched evenly around the fingertips and all the seams have been doubled stitched to keep them reinforced. They have held up brilliantly while I’ve been testing them out, and there isn’t a single loose stitch – they still look like they’re fresh out the bag.

Comfort/use

My first impression of these gloves was noticing just how comfortable they are. As I said earlier the lining of the glove is one of the most comfortable I’ve come across, even beating much more expensive brands including the Cleto Reyes gloves we reviewed recently.

The IMF padding on the Cobra is also great quality, providing tons of protection for both your hand and your sparring partner during tough sessions, but still being firm enough that you can use a 16oz pair for padwork and still get that satisfying feedback on your punches. The broad wrist strap provides added protection, as well as keeping the gloves balanced and stopping it from moving during a session. The wide band of Velcro on the wrist is the perfect length to give you a strong secure closure, without any left handing over the edge (which can scratch your sparring partner if you end up getting close or clinching up if you’re training Muay Thai).

On the subject of Muay Thai, if you’re using these gloves for training kickboxing/MMA they aren’t the most flexible – mostly due to the in built grip bar – making it slightly tougher to get a grip in the clinch. Not enough to stop you being able to clinch, but it might put off fighters who favour a clinch heavy style, especially if they’re using the gloves for competition.

Overall these have been a brilliant pair of gloves, and I’d recommend them to anyone other than beginners (I’d personally always recommend buying a slightly lower value pair of gloves until you’re sure you want to carry on training). I’d probably rate them as more suited to sparring than bag or pad work due to the features like the thumb protection and the wide wrist strap, but they would be suitable for all round training if your budget wouldn’t stretch to buying multiple training gloves.

Cost

Regular retail price is £79.99, which is really good value considering the quality of the glove, although perhaps outside of the range any beginner would be looking to pay when starting in a striking sport. However as I said they’re currently on offer, so they’re selling for £39.99 whilst stocks last, which is probably the best price you’ll get a pair of gloves this good!