Take a look at Ai??our check list of equipment and apparel that every serious MMA athlete should have at their disposal:

1 – A good quality Head Guard

An essential piece of equipment to ensure that you are protected as much as possible when sparring.

2 – Gum Shield

Another item on the list that is a must for sparring sessions. Protect your teeth, mouth and gums because no matter how careful you may be when sparring, accidents can happen, even when head guards are being worn.

3 – MMA Gloves

A pair of 4oz MMA Gloves will enable you to engage in sparring, pad work and leave your hands free enough to make the seamless transition to grappling, using the same weight of glove that you would use for competition.

4 – MMA Hybrid / Sparring Gloves

The heavier weighted 7oz MMA Hybrid, or MMA Sparring Gloves, are useful to have if you want to include some heavier sparring or pad work in to your training. The increased padding offers more protection for you and your training partner than the 4oz MMA Gloves, but their finger loop designs also keep the hands as free as possible for grappling too.

5 – Hand Wraps

The humble hand wrap is essential for protecting your knuckles, hands and wrists when boxing sparring or hitting the heavy bag. You’ll always want to have a pair of these, literally to hand, if you’re planning on working on your boxing technique as they can be the difference between a good training session or causing some long term damage to your most valuable of weapons.

6 – Boxing Gloves

As an MMA fighter, honing your stand up striking game, working on your stand up movement and foot work can be greatly improved by the quality of your boxing training. For this, you will need to make sure that you have the right gloves for the job. Any self respecting MMA kit bag will include good quality Boxing Sparring Gloves and Heavy Bag Gloves at the least.

7 – Rash Guard

In the interest of comfort and hygiene, wearing a rash guard will reduce the chances of picking up skin infections on the mat as well keep your body as cool and as dry as possible. Due to the close contact nature and intensity of the training, you’l benefit from wearing a rash guard when running BJJ and grappling drills.

8 – Compression Shorts & Cup

Whilst this may not be a kit bag essential for everyone, but there are those that prefer to wear tighter fitting compression style shorts, especially for vale tudo, grappling and wrestling training.

9 – MMA Shorts

Due to specific design features, a good quality pair of MMA shorts will allow you to move as freely as possible without restriction, this is essential for such a dynamic sport like MMA where speed and movement are key features.

10 – Shin Guards

It is common for Muay Thai and kick boxing drills to make up a significant part of your MMA training. Along with practising these and other disciplines that heavily feature kicking, it is important to make sure that your shins and ankles are protected as much as possible. For heavier contact sessions, you’ll want to have a pair of striking or thai shin guards to hand, these are thickly padded and have extra foot and ankle protection. For lighter contact sessions, where you want to include some ground work in to the session, you will need the lighter and smaller style grappling shin guards..

What about the kit bag itself? A good mma kit or gym bag, will be large enough to carry your essentials and will often feature perforated or breathable material to help reduce bacteria build up and unpleasant odours. Such kit bags normally have compartments to help store and keep your dry and wet gear separate too.