Questions before I try starting to box, please help.

[N Maiberg]

//EDIT: New post at the bottom, read that for the update.


Hello, my name is Nick, I'm 17, about 176cm, weigh about 62kg. Been considering various Martial arts to start practicing, but I recently opened my eyes to boxing. After a bit of thinking I've completely forgotten about Martial arts for now as I think the techniques from boxing would be much more fun to learn.

However, my birth was quite troublesome, and it ended up giving me a really weird stomach with a big scar, and ever since birth really, I've always had a very weak stomach. Even a softly thrown tennis ball would hurt my breathing a bit. So I'm starting to think I should just give up with trying to do anything with fighting, but I can't help but be upset at myself for giving up because of this.

So what I really want to ask is. Are there any guards/stances that can help my stomach take shots, and would practicing boxing help me to eventually be able to take several punches to my stomach without problems? I have been in a few fights at school, but only once have I come trough a stomach punch without going down, and that was when I was doing a lot of sit-ups. But I don't know if this would help now, as I think personally I was in a good shape back then.

Sorry for the really long post, if you actually read trough all that and understand my situation, please help. I really want to be able to defend myself after all these years. I hope you can understand.

-Nick