What should a boxer think about when fighting/sparring?

[HerbM]

I agree 100% with andre, there was a thread like this not long ago and i said pretty much same thing ill say now, the work is done drilling your movements, just have fun sparring and i usually do well then, if i start worrying about how im doing or what im doing things go wrong, i think overall too much forethought while in the ring is what stops you from addapting as well, simply put just have fun and dont worry about getting hit too much and things usually go well for me, i think its that simple.

Agreed that 'worrying' is counter-productive and that 'having fun' is both useful (in terms of success) and just MORE FUN.

How do you adapt if you don't think? Serious question, how does that work?

Do you (ideally) have any thoughts? How about the simple ideas like "move, relax" etc?

Personally, I CAN think and have fun at the same time, but this isn't in any sense worrying about 'getting hit' while still having fun -- but I am thinking about this more in the sense of 'got hit because....' and 'do this instead...' or 'good, got three hits in for that one' or 'he's giving me (something) when he does that'.

Not arguing (at least not yet) that this is good, but rather wanted to hear from people who have thought about this outside the ring and figured how what works for them or their fighters.

Heck, I LIKE getting HIT up to a point, as long as I am not getting injured and I am doing some hitting.

Part of what I currently talk to myself about is to remind myself to avoid getting hit even though it does NOT bother me. Especially in easy sparring, so I won't ignore a valid punch simply because we are going easy.