Yup. It was a thing. Here's Virgil describing some wraps (the translation calls them gloves, but they were really wraps):

Their minds are stunned: huge pieces of hide from seven massive oxen are stiff with the iron and lead sewn into them.

They might have looked like this.

That's a Greek boxer, and Virgil was describing mythical Trojan wraps. Roman boxers were far more hardcore. You can see how lumpy these gloves are.

There's a book, Combat Sports in the Ancient World, that has a short chapter on boxing.

Those dudes didn't fuck around; boxing was deadly. No 12 rounds here.

Also, I just want to say the Boxer is my second favorite ancient statue, and I've been privileged to see it in person twice. There is copper inlay where the cuts are supposed to be, and as a boxer myself I want to say those are realistic defensive cuts on the forearms and shoulders. I can imagine how that fight went down. That's completely subjective though.

But really, what about boxing isn't these days?