Boxer Career
Boxer Career
The Real Poop
So you like to kick butt, huh? Do you think you kick enough butt to get paid for laying down the pain?
It takes a particular kind of person to want to fight for a living. The first must-have is a huge amount of ambition. There's no boxer in the game who is satisfied with anything less than being a champion. Most don't get there, but if you do make it to the top, the payout is enormous.
Big-name fighters can earn literally tens of millions of dollars per match. Even the "undercard" boxers—those who get the crowd warmed up before a big match—can earn upwards of a hundred thousand in a night (source). Fighters in lower weight classes and less prestigious fighting circles may earn less than a thousand dollars for a fight on average (source).
If you're a woman with a passion for the sport, unfortunately, it's not possible to reach the heights of male fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. That said, women's boxing has come a long way. Once upon a time, it was illegal. Later, it was so poorly regulated that they allowed scratching in fights (source). Now, there are female fighters who do get pretty famous and make some serious coin in endorsements.
The road to success in the field of boxing is intense. It's almost a guarantee that if you don't start young (think nowish), you'll never compete among the best of the best. When you're just starting out, odds are that no one is going to want to pay to see you get beat up. People want to see matches of skill, not a clumsy, blundering newb running around the ring like a dodo bird.
So you'll start out as an amateur. You'll have to seriously prove yourself—preferably while you're still young enough to bounce back from the constant injuries you'll be enduring. If you win matches consistently and also have a winning personality, you just might have a shot at the big leagues. Just find yourself a quality manager who knows how to sell you like the entertainment product you are.
You can start out by getting some experience in college boxing clubs, or boxing clubs in any branch of the military. In fact, pursuing a boxing career while serving in the military is a shrewd move. You'll already be training in multiple forms of combat, and you'll be drilled in fitness and endurance on a regular basis.
To be a boxer, you basically have to be as fit as a pro runner. How else are you going to work up the endurance to duck, bob, and weave for twelve rounds against the reigning champ?
It's a tough job, but the upside is that you're probably only really going to be fighting about ten or fifteen times a year, tops. Part of your job is to take it as easy as possible between matches and recuperate to avoid letting your poor body burn out. Even the big-shot heavyweights like Mayweather make a point to take it easy leading up to a fight. He'll just hang out in his hotel room, order room service, and watch movies as part of his "preparation" (source).
Job prospects in the field of pro fighting are actually decent. If you're serious about competing in blood sport to bring home the bacon, then we here at Shmoop wish you a hard head and heavy fists.
But a word of caution: The great majority of pro fighters are forced to retire young. They may become boxing trainers, owners of training gyms, or commentators. Some switch careers altogether. If you feel that you've got it in you to be a champion boxer, then go for it now. Trust us: If you have two careers in your life, boxing will not be the second.