Who has experience with boxing tournaments?

DoctorTaco

DoctorTaco

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I'm trying to decide if I should jump into a tournament next month without having fought any match bouts first. I'm worried I'm going to be fighting guys with 7-8 fights and end up getting out classed.

I've been doing kickboxing and Mma for years, and started at a straight boxing gym 5-6 months ago. I'm on the competition team and can hold my own in sparring with more experienced guys in my weight class when we spar. I train hard, take conditioning seriously, and have been trying to get matched for my amateur debut for the last few months and had both cards fill up without anyone for me to fight.

My coach says if I want to fight in April I can, that basically it's my choice. It's a smaller tournament in portland but the PNW has a pretty strong ammy circuit from the fights I've watched. I'm looking for advice from anyone who's fought in tournaments as a novice- what kind of competition did you run into?

I'm probably over thinking it, but experience makes a huge difference in this sport and I don't want to jump into something I'm not prepared for because I'm getting impatient to compete.
 
Probably have a talk with your coach expressing these same thoughts. Probably the only person who can tell you if you're ready
 
BigInJapan said:
Probably have a talk with your coach expressing these same thoughts. Probably the only person who can tell you if you're ready
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She's ok with me doing it, I'm trying to decide if I am
 
DoctorTaco said:
She's ok with me doing it, I'm trying to decide if I am
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What do you feel you have to lose? This is completely personal and my own view, but if I feel uneasy doing something that almost ALWAYS means I should do it.

If a girl makes you nervous, go talk to her, if a job/promotions makes you nervous, try to get it, etc. That's my signal to turn off my brain and go forward no matter how scared I am.

(Obviously you weed out the feelings of unease when doing something stupid, but that should be readily apparent. If trying heroin makes you feel uneasy, probably don't do it.)

Edit: This post sounds fucking retarded in hindsight. Hopefully I didn't come off as a new age motivational speaker. But this is a great method to get into some really fun situations and move your life forward.
 
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fluffball said:
What do you feel you have to lose? This is completely personal and my own view, but if I feel uneasy doing something that almost ALWAYS means I should do it.

If a girl makes you nervous, go talk to her, if a job/promotions makes you nervous, try to get it, etc. That's my signal to turn off my brain and go forward no matter how scared I am.

(Obviously you weed out the feelings of unease when doing something stupid, but that should be readily apparent. If trying heroin makes you feel uneasy, probably don't do it.)

Edit: This post sounds fucking retarded in hindsight. Hopefully I didn't come off as a new age motivational speaker. But this is a great method to get into some really fun situations and move your life forward.
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It's the face punching part of the weekend that makes me a bit nervous. I've sparred guys who are better than me, but I've never had to fight them.
 
You are overthinking it. Tournament vs show fights... it's really no difference once you enter the ring. For the most part, you'll be fighting the same type of novice in the tournament as in a show fight. The worst that could happen is you lose. But you gain that valuable experience of getting that FIRST FIGHT out of the way and realize that you can compete. One big obstacle that boxers have is that fear of that first fight. Novice fighters feel that they're not fully prepared. Guess what? You ain't fully prepared. You're a novice fighter and it'll take you years to get to a high level. But you have to take the FIRST FIGHT. Baby steps. Floyd Mayweather wasn't built in a year. If your coach recommends that you compete in that tournament, dammit man compete.
 
Cap10Kirk said:
You are overthinking it. Tournament vs show fights... it's really no difference once you enter the ring. For the most part, you'll be fighting the same type of novice in the tournament as in a show fight. The worst that could happen is you lose. But you gain that valuable experience of getting that FIRST FIGHT out of the way and realize that you can compete. One big obstacle that boxers have is that fear of that first fight. Novice fighters feel that they're not fully prepared. Guess what? You ain't fully prepared. You're a novice fighter and it'll take you years to get to a high level. But you have to take the FIRST FIGHT. Baby steps. Floyd Mayweather wasn't built in a year. If your coach recommends that you compete in that tournament, dammit man compete.
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thanks for the input, this is solid stuff
 
DoctorTaco said:
I'm trying to decide if I should jump into a tournament next month without having fought any match bouts first. I'm worried I'm going to be fighting guys with 7-8 fights and end up getting out classed.

I've been doing kickboxing and Mma for years, and started at a straight boxing gym 5-6 months ago. I'm on the competition team and can hold my own in sparring with more experienced guys in my weight class when we spar. I train hard, take conditioning seriously, and have been trying to get matched for my amateur debut for the last few months and had both cards fill up without anyone for me to fight.

My coach says if I want to fight in April I can, that basically it's my choice. It's a smaller tournament in portland but the PNW has a pretty strong ammy circuit from the fights I've watched. I'm looking for advice from anyone who's fought in tournaments as a novice- what kind of competition did you run into?

I'm probably over thinking it, but experience makes a huge difference in this sport and I don't want to jump into something I'm not prepared for because I'm getting impatient to compete.
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Since you've seen the fights. Ask yourself how you compare to them. Can you beat them up? You can usually tell and compare just by watching them fight. Like how Gohan saw Cell fight Goku and thought they were both super slow.
 
freaky said:
Since you've seen the fights. Ask yourself how you compare to them. Can you beat them up? You can usually tell and compare just by watching them fight. Like how Gohan saw Cell fight Goku and thought they were both super slow.
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never seen a tournament, just match bouts. The guys with 6+ fights look a lot better than the guys with 1-2 fights
 
If you've trained at an optimal level, then do it. Trust your technique.

Don't forget to tuck your chin and keep your gloves up. Lots of newer fighters forget those things.

Cowards die many times before their deaths.
 
getting outclassed is not a problem, it's whether you think you're gonna get beat up and hurt is the issue. I've been outclassed in sparring my people with no power and i learn from it, I've got beat up in sparring and in one fight by someone with lots of power and not as much skill, which sucked more. In the early days it's your corner and coach matter most, will they let you take a fight where you could well get hurt? Can you trust your corner to mind you if things go south?
 
Wait wait wait, some not so good information here, and I'm offended you didn't message me elsewhere first.

1) Due to your age you're going to be automatically classed as "open." So you're not looking at guys with 7-8 fights. Might be guys with 78 fights.

2) For Regional and National level tournaments they've removed the 5 fight minimum. Some snooty folks around here, I've heard, have remarked that my fighters have losses. Well, his first year in the Golden Gloves State tournament Bleu fought the #3 Amateur in the U.S. at 141, who had over 30 fights. Second year he lost to the #1 Amateur in the U.S. at 132, who had 120 stoppage wins on his record. Daijon's first year he fought the #2 guy in the U.S. at 152, who had 45 fights. They each had 4 and 6 fights. I only allowed it because I was there to take care of them.

3) Tournaments are very different than Club shows, the matching is usually done by the trainers at Club shows, in tournaments...when you enter you fight who shows up. You can always not fight, but you don't choose who at tournaments.

I would not advise going in blind, but if you do make sure your trainer asks to see the book of the opponent before you fight, validate their experience (or suggested lack of), because sometimes you also have ringers. There was a guy around here claiming he only had 3 bouts, but some of us knew he had fought in the Olympics for the Bahamas, USA Boxing just didn't have that information.
 
Sinister said:
1) Due to your age you're going to be automatically classed as "open."
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If you could, please elaborate a little more about this rule.
 
What's to elaborate on? Once you're over a certain age, you're automatically "open"...meaning there's no maximum number of fights an opponent should have for the match to be allowed. You can always refuse a match, but not in a tournament. In a tournament, it's a forfeit, or you just shouldn't enter it.

Even if there's a "novice" division, it doesn't need to be enforced by USA Boxing, it's at the discretion of the hosts.
 
Sinister said:
What's to elaborate on? Once you're over a certain age, you're automatically "open"...meaning there's no maximum number of fights an opponent should have for the match to be allowed. You can always refuse a match, but not in a tournament. In a tournament, it's a forfeit, or you just shouldn't enter it.

Even if there's a "novice" division, it doesn't need to be enforced by USA Boxing, it's at the discretion of the hosts.
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Here in IL due to his age, he would be classified as "Senior Novice" not open. Generally speaking you must have 10 fights to be open. However, you can choose to be open after 5 fights. Of course, I'm talking about local tournaments. Nationals are all open for adults.
 
That's interesting, considering we have a fighter here from Chicago who competed in the State Golden Gloves out there with only 1 Fight. He just happened to be good.

There's no Senior Novice here in Nevada, if you're over that age you can be matched with anybody, you just don't have to accept the bout.
 
Bump.

They added a sub novice division 10 days ago so I decided to go for it. Hindsight being what it is, not the best decision because I was at 152, eating clean and working out hard when I agreed. Making 141 was pretty brutal and involved a sauna which I hate having to do. But I made weight and am now waiting for medicals. I'll compete at 141 as a sub novice, making my ammy boxing debut.
 
DoctorTaco said:
Bump.

They added a sub novice division 10 days ago so I decided to go for it. Hindsight being what it is, not the best decision because I was at 152, eating clean and working out hard when I agreed. Making 141 was pretty brutal and involved a sauna which I hate having to do. But I made weight and am now waiting for medicals. I'll compete at 141 as a sub novice, making my ammy boxing debut.
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Good luck to you! Looking forward to seeing the results.
 
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