[Iterated]

Boxing is extremely damaging to the brain. The gloves make it even worse because it allows a boxer to sustain more blows for a longer period of time. If there were no gloves there would be quicker knockouts and less bouncing of the brain around in a boxer's skull for extended periods of time. This is why many posit that MMA is safer than boxing. Smaller gloves mean quicker knockouts. There are also ways to win MMA fights that don't involve direct punching.

[brazzy]

Actually, if there were no gloves, there would be very little punching to the head, because that would often lead to broken fingers rather than knockouts.

Gloves were introduced because the few punches to the head nearly always caused cuts, making bare-knuckle boxing a very bloody sport.

Gloves made boxing palatable to the glamour crowd, at the cost of the fighters' health (and sometimes life).

[coryl]

- We don't know if a quick KO is "better" than a sustained beating. I'm not sure if any scientific evidence helps show this, so that hypothesis is just theory at the moment. (I haven't research this at all though, so if you have articles please do share.)