One of the two forms of contemporary competitive boxing, along with amateur boxing, is professional boxing. The idea of amateur and professional boxing is significantly different, although the combat is largely the same. There are minor distinctions, but they are significant.
Professional boxers are fighters who compete professionally. They are career athletes who are at the very pinnacle of their discipline. They earn a living from the fights they compete in. World champions like Anthony Joshua additionally earn money through endorsements and sponsorship. They fight to win belts and titles.
Professional boxers participate in hand-to-hand fights to win belts and titles, frequently in front of raucous spectators. Although it may sound glamorous, a boxer’s professional career consists of much more than just fighting.
Their workweek includes strength training, rope skipping, running, weight gain/loss tactics, and maintaining excellent physical condition. They spend most of their professional life in the boxing gym.
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Here are 11 tips to help you become a professional boxer.
#11. Get The Right Management Team
Each professional athlete relies heavily on their management staff. You want to locate the proper one to help guide your future career movements and put together good fights. But doing so may be challenging without knowledge about their triumphs and mistakes in managing boxers in the past.
#10. Find Yourself a Promoter
Promoters are the lifeblood of any combat sports promotion and are essential to its success. They search for potential talent, negotiate contracts with media outlets, and sanction organizations for fights. They strive to promote events on behalf of their boxers to maintain credibility in an industry that takes a lot from them personally and professionally.
If you choose the wrong one, it might cost you not only your future opponents but also your future opponents’ future opponents. This is because promoters are not ready to work together if various managers represent clients under contract at each other’s venues.
#9. Have a Purpose and Motive
Motivation is essential for getting through your training and going above and beyond to get your body where you want it to be. Whether it comes from your favorite soundtrack or letting the stress of the day out on the heavy bag, each person has unique motivations.
While some people find motivation for boxing by covering their walls with posters of their heroes, others require the ideal warm-up to start going. Spend time figuring out what motivates you, then make the most of it. Finding what works perfectly is an art; therefore, this process can take some time.
Try varied sources of inspiration, such as music, inspirational boxing quotes, or meditation, without hesitation. If you use a slightly unconventional motivational strategy, don’t be embarrassed. Do what you need to do to reach your desired mental state as long as you are not endangering yourself or those around you. Great training requires the appropriate mindset.
#8. Build Up Your Fan Base
It is common knowledge that garnering a large following is essential to success in professional boxing. To become a star in the world of professional boxing, you need to develop an exciting fighting style that everyone adores.
#7. Establish an Online Identity
A strong online profile is essential for any boxer looking to attract new fans. Just think about it: in this day and age, who has the time? The days of slapping together any old website online and calling it good enough are long gone.
One option is getting an expert team member fluent in social media. Your web visibility will improve significantly as a result.
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#6. Show Charisma
To what extent is it possible to forge one’s identity in the ring? You need to exude charm. Though some people appear to radiate it effortlessly, others must work to achieve it.
The easiest way to do this is to exude self-assurance without appearing arrogant. If you have an endearing personality, even people who don’t like your fighting style will be able to appreciate how lovely and clever of a person you are.
#5. Learn from the Best Boxers
The media’s ability to distort people’s world vision raises some intriguing questions. Professional boxers who exude charisma are often in the media. Still, if you take away their notoriety, they are like any other individual going about daily.
This is why it’s important to study the lives of those you admire; doing so will motivate you to push yourself. You’ll be more driven to keep going if you look up to positive examples.
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#4. Advance In Your Career
Climbing the ranks, competing against other fighters, and honing your skills is the surest path to becoming a champion. You’ll need to fight for it; therefore, it’s best to meet with someone who can judge how well you fare in battle.
You should look for tough opponents against whom you feel comfortable making bets so you can see the outcome of a battle between two of your best rivals firsthand.
#3. Obtain a License
You must become a member of the IBF, WBC, or WBA, a professional boxing organization, and obtain a license from the commission where the fight will occur.
This phenomenon is referred to by the acronym “alphabet soup” because it seems like a new organization with its rules is forming daily. But if those don’t tickle your fancy, there are many other choices.
Because the United States is a federal republic, each state has its own rules for obtaining a license. Some jurisdictions require that you were an amateur boxer during the previous two years, while others inquire whether you previously had a manager.
#2. Get a Reliable Manager
Having a manager is crucial to starting your professional career. They are certified professionals who, in addition to managing contracts and finding partners, guide and coordinate every element of their client’s lives.
Additionally, they have relationships with other boxers, which might be advantageous if you’re trying to be sponsored or train at another fighter’s gym.
It’s common practice for professional boxers to give managers a portion of their earnings, but you must understand the advantages of such an arrangement.
#1. Improve Yourself Through Training
To become a professional boxer, you must improve your power, quickness, defense, and autonomy. Your reputation will grow the more you engage in conflict. Do what they expect fighters to do if that doesn’t pan out for some reason; there isn’t any other choice but to train: Train hard so that when it’s time for battles, everyone knows who is in the lead.
You’ll fight like never before. The best fighters must stay attentive and resist an endless barrage of attacks. Your defenses must be alert because each round has so many punches; else, your opponent will knock you out.
Power: Knowing the right strategy is crucial for winning and having fun. If your opponent is disciplined and controlled with their strength, they will win a bout. Throwing wild punches will make your opponent more motivated. You can accomplish this by doing power training.
In the professional boxing arena, you face off against some of the most nimble and quick-footed competitors in history. No matter how powerful or swift they appear, the outcome will not be favorable if you are slower than them.
Training is the only way to boost your speed to the levels required, so you’ll need to work on that.
Have autonomy; your responses should be spontaneous and automatic. You can’t afford to pause and deliberate over what to do next. You just have to respond and keep going.
Is turning pro in boxing hard?
Becoming a professional boxer and getting paid to fight appeals to every fighter who loves the sport. But is the promise of a professional boxing career hard?
The road to becoming a professional boxer is incredibly challenging. You’ll need to train hard to build strength, consistently succeed at the amateur level, and maintain your body’s physical form. You’ll spend your professional life in the boxing gym. Professional boxing is one of two modern competitive and amateur forms.
The concepts of amateur and professional boxing are very different, even though the actual fighting is very similar.
One significant distinction is that after you turn professional, you cannot return to the Olympics because professionals often aren’t allowed to compete in the Olympic Games.
You cannot expect to develop into a boxer in a short period. Long training, practice with partners and trainers, participation in local and state events, and a permit are all requirements for the career.
A section into the calling will depend on your age, level of health, illness, mental state, and skills. Like football and cricket, boxing is an international sport. To continue to hold a mentor position even after losing your body parts in the ring, you must build a respectable reputation.
If you want to live out your dreams of competing in the UFC or becoming a pound-for-pound boxer, you should pursue a career as a professional boxer. Boxing is the main source of income and a way of life for certain people.
Boxing is unquestionably a great career choice, although you must pursue it reverently and give up many things. It is worth it.
How long does it take to become a professional boxer?
To become a professional boxer today, one must compete at the amateur level. The amount of time it takes someone to become a professional boxer depends on various factors; Let’s examine how long it’ll take to transition to pro from amateur.
Top boxers in history averaged 118 amateur fights before turning pro at slightly over 20 years old. If the average fighter started amateur at 16, they had 118 fights in 4 years to turn pro. It is crucial to comprehend the figures’ nuances while looking at averages. Many factors affect a boxer’s amateur career transition.
Some of the factors affecting an amateur boxer’s career span are:
- The urgent financial need they have.
- What a natural skill they possessed, and at what an early age they started practicing.
- Where they originally hailed from geographically.
- Their boxing competition history.
A wide range of variables influences the time it takes to become a professional boxer. You will need to blaze your own path to professional success since every fighter has a different path.
Even if you are younger or older than the standard professional debut age of 20, the key factors ultimately boil down to a few specific elements.
- Your capacity for hard work and the intensity of your desire.
- The talent you naturally possess.
- The people you surround yourself with as a team.
- Your decision and preparedness to enter the professional world.
If you want to know how often do professional and amateur boxers fight, follow the link to an article I wrote on the topic. Spoiler alert, the answers are distinct in both cases.
How to go pro as a boxer
Boxing is a combat sport where two boxers use their gloved fists and feet to strike each other. You must force your opponent to tap or throw them out of the ring to win. There are five distinct ways: knockout, technical knockout, stoppage, disqualification, or forfeit.
To go pro as a boxer, you’ll need to do what you’d do to make it a professional athlete in any other sport. Locate a trainer, a sponsor, and a gym where you dedicate your time to hone your craft. You do this, so recruiters and scouts see your skills. Strengthening is clear as regular, rigorous workouts develop muscle.
Finding a trainer who has faith in you and a lot of boxing expertise is again important. However, you should also look for the best gym where they’ll always welcome you. Though many gyms provide boxing training for amateurs and pro boxers, not all are created equal.
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Final words
Quick results are impossible. To become a professional boxer requires a lifelong commitment. Moreover, you must put in substantial training time and make steady
progress toward better performance. You can improve your chances of making your professional debut by consistently training your endurance, speed, and power.
Many people succeed in boxing despite the various obstacles they experience, so don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make it after such a long period.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about the best boxers in the history of boxing. Knowing them—will allow you to learn from the pinnacle of fighters. So, do give it a read.