A garage boxing setup from zero

Bag & Bell is a beginner's guide to a home boxing setup: boxing gloves sized by body weight and use, hand wraps and how to put them on, heavy bags and the stands and mounts that hold them, mouthguards and headgear and when you actually need them, jump ropes and round timers — with the safety basics coaches assume you already know.

It is written for one reader: the adult, or the parent, starting boxing or kickboxing at home who wants a safe default kit without the pro-gym intimidation. Not the spec-sheet collector, not the competitor. If you are trying to work out which gloves to buy first and whether your garage ceiling can hold a bag, this site is for you.

Who publishes it

Bag & Bell is owned and published by Iron Mako Media, an independent publisher. Everything on the site — the entity, the author, the contact — is theirs.

Who writes it

Mike M. is the hands-on owner behind Iron Mako Media. He writes Bag & Bell for people putting together their first boxing or kickboxing setup at home — compiling the published specs, reading the manuals, and sizing gear by weight and use so a beginner gets a safe default kit without the pro-gym intimidation.

That is the whole bio, and it is deliberately short. Mike M. is not a certified coach, does not run a lab, and has not tested the products on this site in a garage full of gear he was given. Where other sites in this category lead with credentials and testing claims, Bag & Bell leads with a published, reproducible method — what we read, how we score it, and where we say “skip this if.” The methodology page is that method in full.

How it is funded

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Iron Mako Media earns from qualifying purchases. When you click a product button, you go through our own resolver to the retailer with a tracking tag; the price you pay is the same. We do not accept sponsored placements, paid reviews or free products, picks are chosen before any link is built, and if Amazon is not the best place to buy something we say so. The affiliate disclosure and editorial policy spell it out.

The site in numbers

Contact

Corrections, questions, and anything we got wrong: mike@blackironathletics.com, or the contact form. Corrections are dated on the page they fix. There is no phone number and no office address; this is a publication, not a store.

Where to start

The beginner equipment checklist is the front door. The glove size chart is the page most people need first. And the safety basics are the page we would most like everyone to read.