Quote Originally Posted by ross View Post
Go for it if you want to. Concentrate on the basics, like footwork, how to move on your feet, your balance. Then learn defence. Chin down hands high, elbows inturned slightly side on to reduce the opponents target area. Learn, blocks and parrys and perpetual movement of your upper body as a static target is a target. Once you have a nice tight defence, you will feel alot more comfortable in your initial sparring.

Then you can at least participate in some white collar bouts.

Your doing this for fun I presume, those who are belittling you maybe dont have the bottle to step foot in the ring and try it for real, just for fun.
By all means, get in the gym and enjoy it... There's nothing out of the ordinary or exceptional in that. Nobody should be put off doing so.

There's a marked difference between dipping your toes in the water and going pro.

Realism, is the word we seem to be looking for here.