New to boxing, need questions answered please.

Hi, I'm going to try amateur boxing. First let me say I have no delusions of going pro or anything like that, I just want to learn about boxing and train and spar and have some (5 to 20) official fights and that will probably be enough for me.

I'm 6 feet tall (male) and weigh 260 currently. I've been exercising at a local college gym a few times a week for 3 months now, purely to lose weight. Someone told me boxing training provides a great workout and will help me lose weight. I found a gym that will open a boxing section soon. So I figure that if I'm going to train in boxing, I might as well do it all.

I spoke to the manager, and he says that local boxing events have a class called sub-novice for people with 4 fights or less. Then from what I've read here (the internet), I guess I'd be a novice until 10 fights.

So I'm prepared to start boxing training in the next month or so, and when the manager thinks I'm ready, I'll move into sparring and then some amateur fights. I haven't had any kind of physical fight in years, so I think this will be a good learning experience for me.

Here's one question - when searching women's boxing, I saw several photos of teenage (17-18 yrs old) girls boxing, and they had no headgear on. Aren't you required to have headgear unless you're a pro? I'm 99.9% sure those girls weren't pro.

But when reading through some google boxing searches today, one thing scared me. It says that amateur boxers can only be between ages 17 and 34. I'm 34 now, but will turn 35 in 2 months.

So from what I read in the USA Boxing rulebook, I'd be restricted to fighting men only older than 35. I think that's unfair, I'll probably tell the manager I'm 32 or 33 so I can fight the people I'd be more likely to get in a fight with if I were walking down the street or something. Plus I'll have fewer competitors to match up against if I'm in the 35+ group. I look young so no one should question me saying I'm 32/33/34 if all they do is ask.

I've never had the slightest interest in boxing or any other physical sport my whole life, so this really sucks that I find myself being put into a Masters class that I don't want to be in. IF they find out I'll soon be 35, that is. How would they know? Would they want to see a drivers license, or will they just ask me my age? I'm in Pennsylvania if that matters.

Yes, I understand that younger boxers might smack my butt all over the ring hard if I end up against a good 20 year old, but so be it if it happens.

Thanks in advance for any useful replies. Please don't flame me, it won't help me learn anything.

Hi Randy, what with me rapidly closing in on 30 I'm always the first to jump to someones defence when it comes to age ;D but we have to be realistic here, your age is an obstacle, its not an insurmountable one but it might affect your ability to achieve the goals you have already set out for yourself. I wouldn't recommend lying about your age, firstly you will get found out, secondly trust is a huge part of a boxer\trainer relationship, you wouldn't want that relationship to be built on lies. You will wear headgear in competition.

Dont let your age put you off though, my advice to anyone wishing to learn boxing would be get yourself to a gym, and its the same for you, OK so you will never win a world title, you might not step through the ropes in competition at all, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't get involved and benefit from all that boxing has to offer.

I hope this is of some help.

ok you're 33, so i don't think you'll become professional or even amateur unless you take it seriously.
I really think that youv'e got to be quiet into boxing to get into the amateur cercuit, personally i think you just want to try something new and want to lose weight. To become an amateur you need to train
hard and most importantlyyou need to stick to it, if your don't like the sport that much you should try another sport. One that won't allow you to get pummeled in the face, trust me boxing pretty hard if your'e not determined and slack off.
Good luck in the future, hope you turn amateur and whup some ass. ;)

Define "getting into the amateur circuit". I thought that after you learn about boxing, and do some training, and after you do some sparring, then when you actually go to an official fight after that, you're an amateur. Isn't that right?

In other words, when it comes time for your first fight, do you just kind of say "Hey, I'm an amateur boxer now" and that's it, or is there some process you have to go through to be approved?

I spoke to a boxer at a boxing gym in my area today on the phone. The manager was busy so this guy picked up the phone. They said they had some people going to a Golden Gloves tournament thing today, but he made it sound like Golden Gloves was only one step above sparring.

Is Golden Gloves what amateur boxers do (or part of it), or is being an amateur boxer one step above Golden Gloves?

I tried to work in the issue of age without giving too much personal information about myself. From what the guy said, age wouldn't be a problem if I was only boxing in local events. I guess they're not part of the USA Boxing thing. He said he was 35 and someone else was 38 and they were boxing against people in their 20's.

I have to call back and talk to the manager next week, and gather more intelligence on what I should say to the people at the boxing gym that I WILL go to concerning my age.

So far my plan is to claim I'm 32, born in 1973 instead of 1970, and hope they don't ask for a driver's license or birth certificate or anything like that.

The_One77, you're right, I mostly just want to try something new, I don't have much excitement in my life right now. But I would like to learn enough and fight enough to know what goes on and how it all is.

Good plan. I do think your thinking to far ahead though.Go one step at a time think two steps ahead.
Start training first, watch and learn from the sparring fighters.
Then move to it when the tiime comes and move into a ring fight if and when the time comes.
Just concentrate on enjoying yourself .
I wouldnt sign anything on age and lie.

But verbally ...I thought most women over 30 did anyway!
If you get pulled up on the age thing, You could put your hands on your hips and say;
"its a womans perogative to lie about there age"! Didnt you know ??? ;)

I am joking ;)

Sign anything? In the process of becoming an amateur boxer (if I even get that far) or just to train at the gym, are they going to have me sign papers, part of which is confirming my age?

I don't know enough yet, but I can't imagine that ever happening unless maybe if I were going to some big official USA Boxing event, which won't happen anytime soon.

Yeah thats what I was thinking too mate ,so just cruise along and enjoy your self,deal with stuff if and when it arizes only.

They may get you to sign something in regards to your health and wellbeing and in regards to any past or present injuries just to cover themselves for their own insurance policy.

it depends what gyms you join.
One gym i went to was a popular open gym where everybody goes, i had to sign papers about my age .etc. but now i go to a more backstreet gym. They didn't give me anything to sign and just asked, they really didn't give a monkeys because they just wanted me to train.

Yes, I expect the trainer will want me to sign something so he's not held responsible if I get hurt in there. I don't have a problem with that part.

I'm going to call a few boxing places on monday and see what I can find out about the age problem. I just want a few chances to fight the other amateurs in the 17-34 age range.

This is just my luck, to decide to do boxing now, when I'm right at the age limit.

I think I'll make myself 32 as far as they're concerned, until they can prove me wrong. That should give me a few years hopefully, if I even like it once I'm in the ring.

But there's still something I don't fully understand. The process of going from training to sparring to fighting amateurs.

I think it's:
1. train
2. spar
3. fight in regular organized fights, at which point everyone is automatically an amateur. Novice class for the first 10 fights, then open class for 11 and up fights.

Is that correct?

u know since ur older & u just wanna box some .....that is what "tough man" is for youd be fightin everyday average joes(like u sounded like u wanted to do)

alot of amatures are firemen ,police oficers, young collage football players/wrestlers etc...depending on the area u live(due to competition levels) u may wanna consider just tough man contests & maybe even make some money ...amature u get NO MONEY so ur 34 go for it man....(Tough man counts a pro boxing even though u wear head gear...so even though u have no "dilusions" u could take a pro fight or 2 on a river boat or somthin if u do ok at tough man)

...just a thought :)

I've called several boxing gyms in the area to gather intelligence on the age rules and expected length of time in training before sparring and fights, and have gone to see 2 places in person. The first seems to be fairly good from what I've seen so far.

I went to see one tonight that had a pretty good website page, and I thought it was going to be a good place. I was wrong, it's a MAJOR s***hole. A couple double size rooms in a basement of a building, the "ring" was about 1/2 the normal size, and kickboxers outnumbered boxers by about 3 to 1. And they want something like $70 a month on top of that! :bs:

There were 3 women in the kickboxing, and I spend a lot of time watching them. I think I wouldn't mind one of them giving me a mild beating! :D

But the trainer confirmed what I suspected, based on my various phone calls to other boxing gyms. He said there's virtually no chance for a fight in my area in the age 35+ Master Amateur class. And there are a lot in the 17-34 class. It may just be bad timing on my part, but I think it's very unfair.

So as far as anyone in boxing's concerned, I'm 31. I'll worry about getting caught when it happens. What can they do, not allow me to fight in official events? Oooooooo wow. :P

I have one more boxing place to go and look at tomorrow evening.