Are u NOT a boxer (not amateur or pro) but HAVE sparred before?

[Zaryu]

No fights for me, but it feels like I've been sparring my whole life. I sparred friends before ever joining a boxing gym in my early teens. Back then everyone outweighed me, by a lot. Joined a boxing gym, and sparred regularly. After going to college I only did boxing training as a hobby with my friends. After teaching them and seeing improvement, I also sparred with them.

[KillaMane26]

Imo street fight is easier than boxing....just more dangerous

[Chuckguy]

I sparred a round with Rios. He didn't want to keep going. Maybe cause he would have hurt me ha. It was crazy and I can't see how these dudes go through all that training and then fight for 12 rounds.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

I see this all the time, boxers focusing on their strongest tools, and ignoring their weak points.

1000 pct correct (IMO)! I always tell my fighters, we've got to work on what you ARE NOT good at

[Zaroku]

1000 pct correct (IMO)! I always tell my fighters, we've got to work on what you ARE NOT good at

I knew you would understand. My ego was too big, my skull too thick and numb to listen to my betters. My uncles call me a wasted talent. I think this handle is accurate for most boxers.

I had power, still do, but my pride always exceeded my abilities.

To be great, a guy has to humble himself, listen and learn, focus on weaknesses, and not on excuses.

[JAB5239]

Sparring can be some hellacious shit even if coach says "only throw jabs"... trust me man that head gear does NOT protect you from getting your nose busted the **** up from a well placed jab or straight shot

I honestly hated headgear. Bigger target, and when you get clocked with 16oz gloves it rocks you the same.

[Suckmedry]

I'll say this much. In my 34 years in boxing gyms, I've seen NUMEROUS guys come in off the street.... regular guys, gang members, football players (one current NFL player and another college All-American), MMA, etc etc...many thought boxing was easy and that the only real criteria to hang with an experienced fighter was to: Be a man, think they are tough, lifted weights, have a bad attitude, have "played sports all my life" and have heart (One guy told me, "As a MAN I would NEVER stay down from a body shot, I would NEVER quit.)" Most find that having NO experience in a real boxing ring is really not a good thing when you think that you can compete at more than 2 percent (out of 100) level of intensity. I've seen MANY MANY MANY learn the hard way. Its why I would NEVER go to a high school baseball team and ask if I could try and hit off the best pitcher on the team because I... like baseball, used to play baseball as a kid, watch baseball and generally think "how hard can it be, right?"

Exactly. No one in their right mind would even try to say they could hang with Kobe playing one on one or, say get tackled by a NFL linebacker.

Yet there's guys on here who think they could go some rounds with Gonzalez, rigo or lomachenko because they are only little dudes. It's hilarious.

Anyway iceman it would be great for you to pop into the training and nutrition forum and share some knowledge. We get some decent discussion in there sometimes.

[Weltschmerz]

Still spar and had a handful of am fights more than a decade ago.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Exactly. No one in their right mind would even try to say they could hang with Kobe playing one on one or, say get tackled by a NFL linebacker.

Yet there's guys on here who think they could go some rounds with Gonzalez, rigo or lomachenko because they are only little dudes. It's hilarious.

Anyway iceman it would be great for you to pop into the training and nutrition forum and share some knowledge. We get some decent discussion in there sometimes.

Ill definitely look into, thanks for the heads up, Malcolm

[blacraven]

Yes I've sparred.
I love boxing but I dont like to get hit.
My experience in there was crucial to letting me know(even if on a small level) what it would take to really be prepared and be actually good in the sport.
I'm only 174 but I was sparring a heavyweight, about 230 pounds of solid muscle, blame the trainer for that, afterwards he asked us our weight...lol!!!
They were joking that I was moving like Ali...this was ofcourse my natural movement, I never really practiced movement that much, or anything for that matter except a few punch drills my friend showed me(he used to box for Joe Frazier).
But what I noticed is when he went on the attack, I naturally went into a shoulder roll defense, which was surprising to me because I've never studied or even thought about what defense I would use.
It just felt comfortable, safe and totally natural.(side note: I wonder if professional boxers choose their defense of if their defense chooses them?...hmmm)
Never the less, dude couldn't hit me and I was tagging him, hard.
When I found out I was going to spar that night, I trained myself by watching a few Floyd Fights and tried to learn every trick, this is what I mimicked in the fight and it really worked.
I mean really, really worked.
It does help that I'm already pretty athletic, fast and good with my hands.
Well all was going well until fatigue set in,
I was slowing down from matrix mode to regular mode.
I rolled with one of his monstrous right hooks but ofcourse you could still feel the power(if I didn't roll with it I may have been dropped or hurt).
Also when up against the ropes in my shoulder roll, I caught a hard rib shot(this hurt for a week) surprisingly I felt none of the shots while in the fight but only afterwards...I'm guessing the adrenaline.
Long story short only because I slowed down and had no real strength left to continue my assaults throughout the rounds, they scored it a draw due to my decrease in activity, I basically was just jabbing and moving trying to run the clock out.
One thing I realized is that great conditioning will take you very far in the sport.
Great conditioning can overcome a person with greater skill.
Conditioning is one of the main keys.
Another thing I noticed is that you have to be smart and think in the ring and not just be a beast all the time, because a smart skilled boxer will win 9/10 times.

Another thing that was said by the trainer(an actual famous two time world champion)
Is that I could fight.
I could actually be a good boxer in the ranks with hard work and good training.
Not for me though. I'll stick to the workouts and training.
I left some things out for the sake of time but that's the basics of it.

P.S. As soon as the fight was over I went to put my bookbag on and my shoulder felt like I had been hit with a hammer in it.
I went straight to the hospital and they said I threw it out. They gave me a shot and some meds and fixed it for me, funny thing is I didn't feel anything in the fight.