is 18 too old to start boxing competitvely

[yesman]

i have just started gettin into boxing seriously. However, as i am 18 will it effect my chances of boxing competitvely as a lot of people will have alot more experiance than me. thanx.

[Brockton Bomber]

18 is by no means too old to start boxing competitively. However, you're not likely to be a world champion.

I started when I was 16. A guy from my high school football team brought me to the gym with him after watching me beat up a 30 year old man in a Denny's parking lot. He figured that at 6'3" and 215 pounds of muscle, I was something of freak as a 16 year old.

I first fought as an amatuer a couple months after I first went to the gym. My career ended a few years later with a broken hand when was 26-1. Couldn't fight that often playing football and basketball.

Even starting at 16, I was able to be a pretty good amatuer. In fact, I thought I was damn good until...

A couple years before the '04 olympics, I was able to spar with Jason Estrada. He was the US SHW in '04 in Athens. I think he's since turned pro, so you could probably find him on boxrec. By that time I was up to about 225 pounds. I was taller, faster and stronger than Estrada, (who's really not much of what Larry Merchant would call a specimen). Didn't do me a damn bit of good. His skill level was soooooo far beyond anything I had seen as an amatuer in Chicago. He dropped me. I was able to continue. But the more I tried to bully him, the worse it got for me.

That's the difference in skill level between someone who started when they were 16, and someone who started as soon as they could walk.

[lynwood1]

i fought some poeple that started boxing like at 6 or 7 years old. and im not gonna sit here and lie i didnt win but i didnt lose either. so we were both kinda going at it. and i started when i was 19. i think its never to late to start boxing. the way i look at it is if you have it, you have it no matter how young or old you are. you cant teach a singer to sing there born with the vioce. so you might be born with the talent to be a great boxer. you never know. i dont know if this really happend in real life but watch the movie million dollar baby she started like at her 30's and she just had that god givin talent. so i say go for it if your good then turn pro if your not good then just use boxing as a hobby to stay in shape and do something you love. i hope this helped.

[yesman]

thanks for the replies, i guess if im good enough to box competitvely it will just happen and if not i can just become as good as i can

[Howlin Mad Missy]

Lot's of variables but you don't know till you try. We all know of fighters who look to have skill but no heart or too lazy to train properly and we've seen crude sluggers get the better of skilled boxers.

[lynwood1]

and to the person that lost to jason estrada. you should not give up take that loss to better yourself. learn from all those mistakes you made in that fight to prevent those mistakes from happening again. everybodys gonna lose wether its a fighter thats been fighting since he can walk or a fighter that only has a month training. from the sounds of it you were a great amature. i know people that have more loses than wins. who knows youll maybe meet estrada in the pros again and defete him but only if you matured from that loss. this is just my opinion though. and to the creator of this topic i forgot to tell you this. i think the reason alote of people that start boxing late dont make it in the pros is becuase they think they dont have much time and they turn pro like 1 or 2 years or maybe less after training they think there ready. i say turn pro like in 5 to 6 years theres no hurry. i say turn pro when your like 25 youll have 7 years of experience. well good luck and i hope you do great.

[Scrap]

Lenoard was 16 so it can be done, he did qiute well

[Brockton Bomber]

Thanks for encouragement. I won't be fighting anybody though. I'm 26, and I've had more broken bones than a professional bull rider. I tried going back to the gym about a year ago, and I felt like Fernando Vargas. Nothing was working. I sell insurance now. Good luck to you though. And don't worry, most of my broken bones occurred out of the ring.

[porkypara]

i have just started gettin into boxing seriously. However, as i am 18 will it effect my chances of boxing competitvely as a lot of people will have alot more experiance than me. thanx.

Go for it.

You would start off by fighting other novices like yourself.As you get better only then would your opponents.

[Sharla]

I started at 20 and while it hasn't been all sucess or easy I've really enjoyed it.

Ultimately if I get run over by a truck before I get to be very good I will still not regret any of the time I've spent boxing. It's all about the journey

[Thomas619]

nope, Hasim Rahman started at 20, earnie shaver started at 22 :P