I don't get it. Why the gloves? Many pokemon have clothing items and that's because they are going for some specific idea but for Poliwhirl/wrath I don't see it. It's one thing for Hitmonchan the boxing pokemon to have boxing gloves but what drove the pokemon designers to be like "you know what this tadpole/frog thing needs? gloves!"? There's not even much mention of it even being a skilled fist fighter, if anything what the pokedex always emphasises is how much of a great swimmer it is.

So why the gloves? Is this some sort of obscure japanese pop culture reference or pun or pun I'm missing? Afaik there are no punching frogs in folklore.