Introduction
We have already posted a review of Sabas’ 16oz ProSeries boxing gloves. That review can be found here. For this review, I will summarize the features of Sabas’ SuperSoft boxing gloves, what others have to say about their pairs of these gloves, and give my thoughts about my own pair.
About the Gloves:
Made in Mexico, the SuperSoft gloves feature dual layer padding, with the “same thickness” as the ProSeries gloves, dual cuff design, full leather construction, and satin lining. At the time of writing this, non-custom SuperSofts are priced at $115 and custom ones start at $155.
Reviews
What Others Say:
Youtuber Fit2box comments “its got more padding in the knuckle area…it’s lovely, lovely padding.”
Expertboxing.com’s Johnny Nguyen ranks in his post, Top 5 Boxing Gloves for Training (Bagwork & Sparring), the Sabas ProSeries/SuperSoft as the fifth best and goes on to say that these gloves are “considered to be the closest thing you can get to Winning at any price.”
Corroborating ExpertBoxing, rmphilmacrac, on SherdogForums, writes “The foam, out of all the Japanese style gloves ive used, is the closest to matching Winning. The hand compartment is on the smaller side. Palm side padding …is amazing. The back of the wrist is a little weak on support.”
My Review:
Concerning the fit and feel, my custom SuperSofts are not only comfortable, as expected, but snug, more so than the ProSeries gloves. They still require more breaking-in so that their stiffness is reduced, but the gloves are said to be relatively compact and I certainly feel that; the cuffs hug my arms, and there is little space to move my hand side-to-side in the pocket. I quite like this because, as a result of the compactness of the gloves, my hands get better feedback during sparring. Compared to the ProSeries, the cuffs are shorter and gloves are less wide. They feel as protective as the ProSeries, which is to say that they provide great protection for both your hands, and to an extent, your sparring partners. There’s great wrist protection, as the palm-side padding is ample and the cuff’s padding is stiff. These gloves are supposed to be “like Winning” gloves, but I wouldn’t know. (5/31/2018 Update: There are differences between Winning’s boxing gloves and the Supersoft boxing gloves. Differences such as weight distribution and the presence of a grip bar, wideness of the glove, etc. are notable but I was surprised at how similar the gloves are, especially how the feel very alike when worn.)
Concerning the construction, my gloves looked to be constructed nicely. The left glove weighs 16.2oz, and the right weighs 15.7oz. There were no loose threads, off-color parts, etc. However, there are slight abnormalities in the foam or leather such that you can see a few protrusions under the surface of the leather. I have seen worse foam defects, so I took this to be a minor issue. However, the foam abnormalities could lead someone to thinking that the foam would degrade faster. I would not jump to this conclusion because my gloves might have these imperfections due to being custom-made. (5/31/2018 Update: The lumps underneath the leather are from the foam, as I could move them around. Since being used more and only for sparring, the gloves have more lumps than before, which is a sign that the foam might not last as long as other gloves. But I the gloves do not feel any different as far as hand protection goes; overall, the gloves are holding up a little better than the Sabas ProSeries boxing gloves. The lumps, however, are unsightly.) The leather is soft, and there is a good (as in beneficial) amount of excess lining; in short, the gloves are well constructed. After a couple weeks of use, there’s now a loose thread on each glove.
I have a short note on my experience when purchasing the gloves. Sabas needs to improve their customer service. Communication with them is difficult (language barrier), there was no notification about the progress of my gloves, unless I asked, which I should not have to do. For example, I was told my gloves would ship after 6 weeks, but it ended up taking 8 weeks to be shipped, because 1) there was a delay and 2) Sabas put an unauthorized hold on my order in order to decrease their shipping costs, and I was not notified.
Straight to Boxing 