Name: MTG Pro BP2 Belly Pad
Brand: MTG Pro

MTG Pro BP2 Belly Pad Review

Brand

MTG Pro are one of the lesser known Thai brands. While they may not get the same levels of attention, what they do is produce hand made, well designed products that aim to be more competitively priced than the more well known Thai companies. They offer a wide variety of Muay Thai equipment, including pads, gloves and shin guards.

About the Belly Pad

As with most belly pads the MTG Pro BP2 is a simple tool that provides a lot of training versatility. Designed to allow fighters to train body shots, teeps and knees without injuring their trainer they’re typically brought by coaches. MTG Pro offers their belly pad in 3 colour options; black and white, red and black and white and black. They’re also available in a medium or large size.

The team at muaythai-boxing.com sent us the black and white version of the belly pad to test out and give our opinions on.

Visuals

A lot of belly pads are fairly simply designed – they’re primarily a tool after all. That being said the MTG Pro has done a good job of achieving a simple, understated aesthetic with the BP2. The pad is black leather all round, split down the front into three by two lines of stitching. This actually gives a bit of texture to an otherwise plain area of leather, and a target for teeps. The middle third has an MTG Pro logo patch, and the left and right thirds both have body shot targets. These targets have the MTG pro logo and a certification that the pad is handmade in Thailand from real leather printed on them.

As we said, the belly pad has a simple design, but a clean, utilitarian feel to it that we think still manages to look good.

Materials/Craftsmanship

MTG Pro have designed this belly pad to withstand the constant hard use of a professional Thai boxing gym. They’ve obviously got experience of how durable a product like this needs to be and have considered that when choosing materials and building the pad.

Genuine leather has long been considered the most durable option when it comes to making boxing products. MTG Pro used high grade Thai leather for this belly pad and they’ve filled it with plenty of stiff padding. This gives you about three inches of protection across the whole pad, with marginally morein the middle.

MTG Pro hand make their products in Thailand which tends to be a sign of higher quality products. Again, you can tell that they’ve considered what a belly pad needs to stand up to when constructing it. Overall we’re very impressed by the quality of the craftsmanship. The leather has been cut and stitched together to keep it flat and avoid wrinkles. Stitching has been reinforced in stress areas and the waist strap attached with two big rivets each side. Even the label on the front has been stitched on so it sits as flush as possible to prevent snags.

The one potential weakness we’ve seen is the way the body shot target circles are attached. They’re stitched on so that the edge of the leather is visible. This isn’t a huge issue but could potentially get caught and pull at the stitching. That said, other belly pads we’ve used are built the same, and MTG Pro have done a great job of getting their double stitching as close as possible to the edge to minimise any risk of damage.

Comfort/use

We’ve been really enjoying using the MTG Pro BP2 Belly Pad. MTG have fitted a long pair of velcro straps to make sure you can get the best fit possible and it does a great job of making sure the pad stays in place round after round. Size wise this pad is about standard for other ones we’ve used in the past, but it’s easy to move in and doesn’t restrict movement when you’re holding pads or throwing kicks back to test your fighters guard.

As we’ve previously mentioned the padding is nice and thick (about 3 inches across the pad) with reinforcement on the front and body shot targets where you’ll get hit the most. If you’re holding for someone with big power you’re obviously still going to feel the shots, but the padding hits that sweet spot of firmness to absorb as much of the power as possible.

Cost

The retail price of the MTG Pro BP2 Belly Pad is £79.99. Considering that both Fairtex and Twins belly pads are £100 (or higher for some versions) we definitely think the BP2 is some real value for money.

Between the high quality construction and how good the pad is to use it’s no surprise that it’s popular with some top trainers, like Christian Knowles who trains well known fighters like Jonathan Haggerty and Liam Nolan.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pure Padwork (@purepadwork)

Looking to buy these?

muaythai-boxing.com