How often do fighters really get KO'd in sparring?

[Twixt]

Many good fighters say they've never been KO'd, but I don't know if it's true. When I look at how hard high level boxers spar I'd be pretty surprised if most of them haven't been KO'd at some point sparring here and there. I've heard Dominick Cruz, Aljamain Sterling, and Brendan Schaub all admit to being KO'd in sparring. When I was doing kickboxing the sparring was super light and I never once went home with a headache, but now that I've started boxing (I haven't sparred yet) I see them sparring WAY harder and it's got me somewhat hesitant to jump in the ring.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

I’d say it happens once in a while but not a lot in boxing. The thing is with pure boxing you are wearing 16 oz gloves and headgear so it should be really hard to get KO’d unless you absolutely suck or are just sparring a monster with huge 1 punch KO power. Depends on your weight class too, I can see heavier weight classes getting KO’d more often.

A more common issue is getting over matched and getting dropped hard or just a prolonged beat down imo.

I’ve been dropped in sparring but we were wearing 6 oz mma training gloves. I’ve also KO’d one guy with 14 oz gloves but he was hella aggressive and new. And KO’d another fighter who was cutting weight and drained, and then shot directly into my body kick head first.
It’s normally the newer or shittier guys getting ko’d by kicks or knees where I’m from.

My number one advice is don’t go in there and be some high level fighters punching bag. There is a difference between a guy who’s slightly better than you working you, vs a guy who’s clearly levels above you whooping your ass

 

[Dr. Rose]

Foreman when he was a wrecking ball, was known for ko on his sparring partner. I think he never learned how to pull a punch.

 

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

Depends on where you train, who you train with, and luck. I only ever really got dropped once during sparring. Got dropped hard too. More of an accident. I also have rocked a number of guys sparring, usually a combination of well timed strikes and them stepping into them. Never knocked anyone out sparring. Never seen anyone knocked out sparring either.

 

[YoungCashMoney]

Pretty rare amongst most fighters, the very top level talent score knockouts often though in sparring, almost at will if they over match their sparring partner. Floyd Jr back in 2012-2015 when I was watching his camps would knock people out/wobble them to the point where they can't continue. He was especially brutal in sparring in terms of using his offense. I've seen Tank Davis get nasty knockouts in sparring on the regular. Ive also seen him get knocked out in sparring by this 180lb Russian guy who was around TMT for a while. I guess a better way to put it would be not often with amateurs, but with the pros I've seen it happen many many times. Especially punchers for obvious reasons, if they have a high knockout percentage in fights, odds are they can put most people's lights out in sparring as well. I have seen people knocked dead out cold for like a minute a few times in the gyms in Vegas during sparring. Asleep.

 

[Twixt]

Pretty rare amongst most fighters, the very top level talent score knockouts often though in sparring, almost at will if they over match their sparring partner. Floyd Jr back in 2012-2015 when I was watching his camps would knock people out/wobble them to the point where they can't continue. He was especially brutal in sparring in terms of using his offense. I've seen Tank Davis get nasty knockouts in sparring on the regular. Ive also seen him get knocked out in sparring by this 180lb Russian guy who was around TMT for a while. I guess a better way to put it would be not often with amateurs, but with the pros I've seen it happen many many times. Especially punchers for obvious reasons, if they have a high knockout percentage in fights, odds are they can put most people's lights out in sparring as well. I have seen people knocked dead out cold for like a minute a few times in the gyms in Vegas during sparring. Asleep.

Guess the culture of the particular gym probably matters quite a bit then.

 

[tat2man5k]

Depends on how often you spar with Dillashaw or Chute Boxe

 

[Trabaho]

Depends on the gym
Never seen anyone knocked out in training
Only saw one hard knock down.
Saw a leg kick ko.
Got Flash rocked plenty.

Never seen any KOs at all.

Don't think anyone should get KOd in training. Only if both are agreeing to do hard sparring and it's an accident.

I don't consider a body's shot a ko.

Did quit twice in my life from liver shots.

Second time was totally gassed out of shape.

First time was hurt and just quit the round. If it was like a competition I could've kept going, force myself. But in practice didn't have to.

Also once quit from a left hook to the chin. Took a monster hook and felt some brain pain 3 days. It was OK. I just said this is not good let's stop. No hard feelings. Friendly. I asked to spar light and made some younger kids nose bleed so ate a monster hook later in return. Not mad at it.


Yep and once quit from a nose bleed. A guy landed a huge punch on my nose and I just sat down and rested. Now trainer wasn't around we just randomly started all sparring when he was away. Thought was cool to get my first nose bleed. Could of continued if it was some comp and I forced myself.

But never seen someone go unconscious to the head.

Also once got sort of tkod from punches. Some idiot thug and me were sparring in a private ring. I was out of shape. Just sort of learned to knee and made him angry with a liver knee. Didn't realiser I hurt him. Also he was furious as I kept body push kicking him an he didn't know how to defend it. Dude was big and strong tough. He was like I'm gonna break your leg if you keep doing that, lmao what an idiot.

So he got me on the ropes and rocked me with like 4 punches. I totally couldn't move or react, my body control was gone, I just saw those black flashes. So if that was a real fight it would've been a count definitely.

Def don't wanna a get KOd in sparring. But some people are raging idiots at sparring and would be nice if someone KOs them.

I always try to keep it light hearted. And not make a brawl. If someone lands a hard shot I accept it and keep working and don't try to get even if it is gonna ruin the session.

Yeah right and this fat polish pieces of shit I sparred at a free trial, so a first session at some boxing gym. Worst idiot ever. First shot he throws is a hook with 100% power. He rocked me hard 5 times in 2 rounds. I think it was a conspiracy or something. Like they didn't like me and wanted to sort of not start going to the gym. Felt really off. Like a set up.

But 90% of the time it's just fun and I don't get hurt.

These examples are just less then 1% of the time
I just sparred a lot and it happens rarely something goes wrong.


I like thai sparring. Quantity over damage.

I prefer sparring gwithjext to none damage. If a shot hurts it's ok cause it makes it realistic. Head shots should be used sparingly power wise. Legs are OK. And for some reason when I spar almost noone ever lnds a good body shot on me. I def take a lot of head punches. I like them if they are not too hard.

 

[milliniar]

Body shot tko are the more common KO's training from my experience. Though shit happens also and have see one or two, of course different gyms will have different results.

 

[DoctorTaco]

I’ve got some stories but I’m saving them for the memoirs.

 

[Blake_UK]

Body shot tko are the more common KO's training from experience. Though shit happens also and have see one or two, of course different gyms will have different results.

Yea that's my experience too, especially as I'm in a standard gym where sparring is mixed weight. A lot of people seem to think it's ok to hit extra hard to the body.

 

[DoctorTaco]

A lot of people seem to think it's ok to hit extra hard to the body

*raises hand*

 

[Sinister]

It also depends on what you mean by KO'd. Unconscious is rare. So is rocked so bad they cant continue, stopped is fairly common as there should always be encouragement to stop before either of those happen and on Coaches to stop ot before either of those happen.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Yea that's my experience too, especially as I'm in a standard gym where sparring is mixed weight. A lot of people seem to think it's ok to hit extra hard to the body.

The thing is I am an older guy with salt and pepper head and have white collar look.
So when I spar with younger meatheads and start light, very often they misread it and start hitting hard with their fucking bag gloves (yes my gym is not well supervised).

I usually punish them with hard punches to the body. I have TKOed a few aggressive noobs like that.

Interestingly, the more experienced apanyents usually match my level of control and nobody ever needs to get hurt to calm down.

 

[SandisLL]

Yea that's my experience too, especially as I'm in a standard gym where sparring is mixed weight. A lot of people seem to think it's ok to hit extra hard to the body.

Yeah.
However I partially agree with them. If ' opponent ' is too cocky, then especially.

Btw to beat head with " puffy " gloves and good hands wraps is pleasure for some % of fighters and hobby guys and for a reason.

+ if fighter is " brittle handed " despite good, more likely that they will prefer ' softer '.gloves...

 

[SandisLL]

The thing is I am an older guy with salt and pepper head and have white collar look.
So when I spar with younger meatheads and start light, very often they misread it and start hitting hard with their fucking bag gloves (yes my gym is not well supervised.

I remember that in one gym coach/ trainer once told me that I can't spar with lad with old bagwork gloves. Next session was " fun " for me: he purchased normal fresh sparring gloves for me and was relatively sharp in. Why etc...
Ofc for gym good stuff was that I had paid in prepayment mode + for me boxing then mainly was to reduce some flaws....not dreams to be champ etc.

 

[Blake_UK]

The thing is I am an older guy with salt and pepper head and have white collar look.
So when I spar with younger meatheads and start light, very often they misread it and start hitting hard with their fucking bag gloves (yes my gym is not well supervised).

I usually punish them with hard punches to the body. I have TKOed a few aggressive noobs like that.

Interestingly, the more experienced apanyents usually match my level of control and nobody ever needs to get hurt to calm down.

Definitely, a hard hook to the body to teach a young pup a lesson is an integral part of sparring imo.

I also find lots of tough little guys think they can take the piss when sparring with HWs as we can't hit hard back (our coach has a no uppercut rule for the bigger guys for general sparring).
We do a more "open" style sparring on a Friday evening which I rarely get to, but the few times I've been it's been fun to tag the meatheads with actual 80% shots and see their attitudes change.

 

[shincheckin]

Boxing culture is hard hard sparring. Mma culture is hard sparring. Muay Thai culture is light sparring.

Ko will be more common in hard sparring culture.

Most my injuries came from sparring not fighting. Because Muay Thai is not very popular in USA. Most my sparring was with MMA fighters, striking only.

 

[MT5]

I'm 45 goddam years old and I do this for fun. If you're gonna try to hurt me while I'm just working on my skills and I'll end it. Call me a pussy, I don't care. I AM a pussy.

Boxing definitely defaults to way harder than Muay Thai.

 

[Boomb]

I was never KOed, but I was knocked down once in a kickboxing sparring. Years ago, sparred with an agressive idiot, who was also way better than me and also a southpaw and he cought me with a hard uppercut. My legs gave up and I fell to the floor. I wanted to get up right away to continue and I got so dizzy that I could barely stand up.


edit: In my years of training I never saw anyone knocked out unconscious.