competing with injury

[donnydarkoIRL]

monkey how could you say that? the rules are not even remotely the same, in amateur no technique is given aproval, ot is all agression and straight hits...no time to play hurt, or attack by drawing or even hook...it is knock him out or straight punches only...i doubt ameteur anything will help my boxing...i am too old to fight that way and i lay traps for my younger opponets which you never face as an ameteur . just even competion not that 19 year old that heals between rounds, you face the worst in pro and as far as ametuer you don't get tested all that much...i mean in 3 or 4 rounds, what do you get? ya gotta hit the deep water some time.........

Pretty easily,its ring time
Real ring time,not sparring
It counts now,your trainer has a chance to see what your made of when your scared.Most fighters arent "scared" in sparring,they know the trainer has some control over whats happening.
But when theres a crowd watching,and theres no real control,well you find things out.
That right there will save you from choking when theres a 1000 people who want to see a fight
On top of that,you can find a way to brush it off as,"It doesnt matter" if its amateur
Its a hell of a lot harder to brush that off once its on your pro-record
On top of that,as you say,you face the worst,all fighters develop little ticks they probably shouldnt,well not probably definitly,its hard for your trainer to see them all even in sparring,and definitly not on the heavy bag.
Amateurs are a way to find them

Also when you start competing at a high amateur level you learn work ethic, dedication and how to deal witrh getting smashed on the jaw.

[Trainer Monkey]

monkey how could you say that? the rules are not even remotely the same, in amateur no technique is given aproval, ot is all agression and straight hits...no time to play hurt, or attack by drawing or even hook...it is knock him out or straight punches only...i doubt ameteur anything will help my boxing...i am too old to fight that way and i lay traps for my younger opponets which you never face as an ameteur . just even competion not that 19 year old that heals between rounds, you face the worst in pro and as far as ametuer you don't get tested all that much...i mean in 3 or 4 rounds, what do you get? ya gotta hit the deep water some time.........

Pretty easily,its ring time
Real ring time,not sparring
It counts now,your trainer has a chance to see what your made of when your scared.Most fighters arent "scared" in sparring,they know the trainer has some control over whats happening.
But when theres a crowd watching,and theres no real control,well you find things out.
That right there will save you from choking when theres a 1000 people who want to see a fight
On top of that,you can find a way to brush it off as,"It doesnt matter" if its amateur
Its a hell of a lot harder to brush that off once its on your pro-record
On top of that,as you say,you face the worst,all fighters develop little ticks they probably shouldnt,well not probably definitly,its hard for your trainer to see them all even in sparring,and definitly not on the heavy bag.
Amateurs are a way to find them

Also when you start competing at a high amateur level you learn work ethic, dedication and how to deal witrh getting smashed on the jaw.

See thats alot of it right there,most of the time when you go down,its because your distracted and tight as a drum
Amateurs give you a way to get that out of your system

[donnydarkoIRL]

Actually here's a point...

I'm an amateur, but I was used as a sparring partner for a pro in the summer...

Had I not been an amateur I wouldn't have been given that opportunity nor woiuld I have been of any use.

[Sharla]

I don't want to sound like I'm against amateur boxing. I don't regret the time I've spent in the amateurs. I just think with everything it's important to know what you will and won't get out of it.

I only know of one amateur bantamweight female in Australia I haven't fought yet. She was the national champ last year but this year for some reason gave up her division for the girl who 'won' it (from the same state). Unless I want to keep competing against the same girls over and over again plus a few more with much less experience than me theres not much point in me continuing in the amateurs. I won't get the opportunity to compete outside of Australia as an amateur because other states and teams with money behind them are the only ones who can do that. I need to start planning my own travel if I want to expand my horizons - although I know I'll have to plan it very, very carefully.

I will say that in amateurs I started out only having a cross under pressure, which we couldn't predict from sparring. I've experienced the crowds and am better at dealing with nerves etc. I know how I like to have things in my corner and what my warm up should be. I've learnt a few things that can go wrong which I will remember to avoid. I have had some good sparring at state trainings etc which I'll need to negotiate to get now.

I guess to be honest i don't see pro boxing as a career for myself. I don't expect to make any money from it at all. I've pretty much made the decision not to worry a whole lot about my record. I'd like to do well but if I run into a better opponent and loose fairly then I can accept that and hopefully learn from it. For me to feel motivated at all I need to think of boxing as something i do for myself - not to impress anyone else anyway.

[iceman]

valid points all, but i still say the ring gets you more experience than competing under two sets of rules...as for your record, that imho is what is wrong with pro boxing, beat the hell out of 10 guys,and then lose to number 11 going in hurt, or worse just have a night you can't get it together and then you are a bum...you have no heart...everyone that watches boxing is an expert after 3 or so fights...they claim that guy with 40 pro fights and 150 ametur has no heart...what the f*&^ do you know about heart? is what i will tell most people saying that. that really is my only problem with pro boxing. unless we need to get into corruption the mob etc etc... i also think it is absurd that after 34 you become magically unfit to box unless you find geriatrics like yourself...(in amateur) this is stupid, you got head gear and such, why not let older guys(girls) enjoy a way to test themselves in a ring with a few safety factors thrown in? the olympica are fine, but not everyone will EVER be an olympian. few pro's will ever ever make real money...and like i said one bad fight can derail your carreer...i heard that about Tommy Morrison forever before the hIV stufff,he lost to chumps and killed the guys he should never have beat...anyway just some thoughts, not a personal attack hope this is something we can all use...

[Sharla]

I don't know why they came up with the 34 year old rule myself. I would think they should have some sort of medical test that pronounces you fit or unfit rather than a specific age.

A 25 year old whose been boxing 20 years might have more head injuries than a 35 year old who would like to have their first bout but the 35 year old isn't allowed!

I guess the problem is that catscans are soooo very expensive!

[donnydarkoIRL]

I don't know why they came up with the 34 year old rule myself. I would think they should have some sort of medical test that pronounces you fit or unfit rather than a specific age.

A 25 year old whose been boxing 20 years might have more head injuries than a 35 year old who would like to have their first bout but the 35 year old isn't allowed!

I guess the problem is that catscans are soooo very expensive!

Thats a very good point Sharla.
The age can be appealed though can't it?

[Sharla]

I'm not sure if the age rule can be appealed. I'd guess it depends on how they do things in your area. In Australia you can lodge a complaint or an appeal if you disagree with the decision of a bout. Problem is it costs a few hundred dollars and no on has ever won an appeal - in other words they'll take your money but you've got no hope of winning your argument no matter how compelling the evidence because they just don't believe in allowing people to complain.

One of the guys at the nationals KOed his opponent. The crowd was going nuts, his opponent was leaning dazed against the ropes and because he didn't hear the ref say stop (standing 2 m behind him) he was disqualified. They lodged a complaint about that but no one expects it to go through. I guess if they did then others would lodge more complaints. Pretty soon they'd either have to give their refs and judges a lot more training or be inundated with complaints.

It's easier for them not to be too flexible here perhaps because we don't have the same numbers in the sport to keep standards high. Get rid of all of the ref or judges that make mistakes and pretty soon you have none left. Find good people to train them and there'd be so few it'd be a huge job - especially for a sport which has very little funding.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Yeah I understand completely.

Have you a gym/trainer in mind for your pro career?

[iceman]

same here, no real avenue to complain and if ya find a masters division fight (HA) they basically castrate you...1 minute rounds and huge 16 oz. gloves...what's the point? i mean i assume a level of risk just by training why not let me test myself...besides i got insurance for a cat scan or mri..

[Sharla]

Yeah I understand completely.

Have you a gym/trainer in mind for your pro career?

I feel I need so show some loyalty to my current gym as long as I continue to live in Adelaide. They're a great bunch of people even if i don't always understand everyone perfectly. I think I'd like to manage myself a little more though. Just to feel I can work things out in advance a little more and make things a little more organized than they tend to be when you hear all your fight details via Chinese whisper at the last minute. I think I'd try to negotiate sparring outside of my gym as often as possible and maybe pay for a few sessions with some pro guys from Adelaide.

he thing with my gym is you don't pay for coaching - and they'd never accept your money for private trainings - but that can mean training doesn't have much have structure which makes it hard to feel like you're progressing. That's why I want 6 months to prepare physically and make sure my training is on the right track before I fight pro.

same here, no real avenue to complain and if ya find a masters division fight (HA) they basically castrate you...1 minute rounds and huge 16 oz. gloves...what's the point? i mean i assume a level of risk just by training why not let me test myself...besides i got insurance for a cat scan or mri..

Yeah they should just set a stricter medical if they are worried about slightly older fighters. You would be pushed more in training with only 1 minute rounds!

[iceman]

with one minute, i can only say i need to simply just rip the damn sink out of the wall and him with it again and again till i win..stupid rules stupid game...so once again i say amateur reflects imho nothing of a REAL FIGHTER...UNLESS HE IS SCARED and need 50 fights to get unscared...

[donnydarkoIRL]

with one minute, i can only say i need to simply just rip the damn sink out of the wall and him with it again and again till i win..stupid rules stupid game...so once again i say amateur reflects imho nothing of a REAL FIGHTER...UNLESS HE IS SCARED and need 50 fights to get unscared...

Well I don't really get you but ok...

I'm not saying a fighter without an am background will be nothing, But a good amateur education can be a great supplement.

[Scrap]

After 35 the body doesnt repair it self as it used to. Its all downhill from there

[Sharla]

I find it hard to understand how people put a set age on these things. One of my coaches said the brain doesn't repair itself after 35 but I think that's a myth because the brain can not repair itself - only rewire itself since we do not grow any new brain or nerve cells - what we have when we're born are all we ever have.

So what else wouldn't be able to repair itself after 35? Why 35? Isn't that age likely to vary significantly with lifestyle, nutrition (such as antioxidant intake to combat free radicals), genetics etc?