Quote Originally Posted by canuck kid
i would focus more on techniques/style, bag work, with weights coming in secondary focusing on only compound exercises, such as squat and or bent over rows, bench presses are overrated, more of an ego exercise, plus they work your shoulders more than your chest, if you do want to work your chest try dips.
I just had to comment on this... Compound exercises are absolutely the way to go. Bent over rows are great for building the back (and indirectly the biceps). The squat is the absolute king of compound exercises and will recruit more muscle fiber than any other single exercise you can do. But the bench press is overrated? You lost me there.

Just about every punch you can throw uses ALL of the muscles that are developed with the bench press. Having a strong back (from bent over rows) helps bring your hands back faster from a punch, but the actual punch itself, the power starts in the calves, comes up through the quadriceps, through the hip flexors, abdominals and then goes DIRECTLY through the shoulders, pectorals and triceps muscles. The shoulders, pecs and triceps are all developed with the bench press. If I had to chose 2 lifts that boxers can benefit from, it would include the squat, and the benchpress. There's a good reason that these two are staples among atheletes in just about every major sport.