Here's an interesting BBC New article about two ancient roman sparring gloves recently found in Northumberland. 'Astonishing' Roman boxing gloves found
Cool! Apparently these are sparring gloves with had leather could but just read "metal inserts" [!!!!] were used in the competition gloves... thanks but no thanks!
Cestus - Wikipedia The Greek version was significantly less dangerous than the Roman one - in fact the Roman thinking with leisure activities seemed to be "how can we make this more brutal?"