Headguards

[Bateman]

Is there any difference between an MMA Headguard and a Boxing Headguard.

I know the boxing ones are stamped AIBA but is ther any difference ?

Thanks

[Fightshop.Com]

Not really. The AIBA stamp is one of those political/money making things. You pay the AIBA a HUGE wad of cash in order to be "authorised" as an AIBA standard headgaurd and if you pass you get to use the stamp. To be fair there are published design criteria and a proper selection process against which equipment is judged but it isn’t hard to achieve and the key is paying the cash to the AIBA to use the badge.

I suppose the key difference is between a “training” headguard which is closed face and provide lots of protection to jaw, cheeks etc and “open face” which as the name suggests has no protection on the face. It is this “open face” design which is often referred to as an AIBA headguard or “boxing” headguard. This is because there is a set design criteria for head guards to be used in Amateur Boxing competitions and such headguards are compulsory.

MMA however does not require headguards for competition, hence no specific set design criteria. When people do buy/use headguards for MMA it is normally for training rather than competition so they tend to buy the ones that offer the most protection, i.e. the closed face design.