What's the chances of a Heavyweight boxer being successful if he started boxing at the age of 25 ?

If you use Sonny Bill Williams as an example : here's a guy who had been an elite professional athlete for many years. Began boxing with an elite boxing and marketing team around him. Physically gifted individual. Took him 4years until he could fight a 46 year old Frans Botha, who almost had SBW outta there late in the fight.

 

Bit different being part time to full time don't you think. Definitely not 4 years of boxing training

 

I think in the off season he would have been right into the boxing training, which is between Oct and March add to that he was a full time athlete with access to training equipment, probably implemented boxing training into his regime in season. Obviously not exactly like full time but still at least something to go off for the young wipper snipper asking the question

 

Tony Thompson turned pro at 28, went on to have a very nice career and made some good money. Especially these days with strength & conditioning, recovery science, and nutrition, it's definitely possible to start at 25 and fight for a long time. Have you spent time in the gym and at least done some sparring and messing around on the bags? Do you have an athletic, competitive background? That would certainly be a big help. I would say find the best gym in your area, it may take going in to quite a few to find the right fit. Do your research. Finding the right gym is a very important part of the process. You want to train at a gym you look forward to going to every day that has churned out some successful fighters. Most legit gyms will teach you defense and movement, and if you're really raw probably make you take a few basic classes, before letting you anywhere near the ring. At the very least, even if you don't end up being a competitive fighter, you will get yourself in excellent shape and have a fun place to train and spar and meet some really cool people and gain a much better understanding of the sport. Most gyms are very friendly and love having new people come in to train or fight. It can be a little intimidating walking into a gym and seeing a bunch of killers putting in their work, but 90% of them are really nice dudes. Anyone that comes in and works hard and wants to learn garners respect from everybody. I mean, everyone has their 1st day in the gym at some time, right. Just go make it happen, and props to you for doing it. Be prepared to work your ass off. Good luck bud! Keep us updated.

 

Beat me to it. I believe Ray Austin started in his late 20s as well.

 

Browne turned pro at 30. All things considered a solid run even if he was never as good as Austin or Thompson.

 

I would say go for it, you never know, you might make it, you won't loose much/ nothing by trying (as long as you are semi smart about it and not focus only on boxing and stop generating income for yourself etc.) At the same time you need to put a good amount of energy into it and be disciplined and persistent to make it work. Do not neglect power and speed, someone might be a better fighter than you and you can still knock him out. It would be easier if you have an athletic background.

I'm not sure if you were asking for yourself but that's what I think.

 

Yeah, that's right. I think he was actually 28 or 29. Good call!

 

Beat me to it.

Browne started very late and beat Chagaev (genuinely). That put him at elite level.

However too much hard sparring basically caused his punch resistance to disappear overnight. You dont want to leave your best performances in a sparring session-and then end up washed up overnight

To answer the OPs question

The HW division is the division where you can start the latest and still be successful .

Basically if you are very tall and have a long reach . Or

You have serious power punching.

It is possible. But...

You will get old over night as much of your learning comes through sparring

 

The HBO team touched on this when he fought Wlad. To paraphrase "Just the fact that he got here is a victory in and of itself."

 

I think Lucas Browne was 30 when he turned pro too, and he won the WBA world title.

Edit: I guess I'm a moron, there was not only 1, but 2 different posts regarding Browne. I guess I should have skimmed through the posts a little better. Sorry dudes, my bad.

 

Ray Mercer started boxing at 23 and won Olympic Gold at 27.

Ken Norton started boxing in early 20s, and beat Muhammad Ali at 29.

If you're gifted/talented enough you can achieve heights even if you start late.

 

Mitt Romney the former Presidential runner was about 68 when he gave Holyfield a run for his money in that exhibition match in 2015 and didn't even box a day in his life ,he was probably on peds though against the 52 Holyfield being outweighed by over 50 pounds and still managed to knock him down ?

 

It depends what you mean by successful? Make a living? Absolutely you can make a living doing the local circuit and off the back of it as a local hard man possibly set up a security company or door company or even just prize fighting or even being a sparring partner if you have the right body shape but can you become world champion? I think that so many things have to line up to make it even remotely possible that it’s close to impossible, how do you become relevant I mean how do you become relevant fast because that’s what you would need to do, and how would you get a decent trainer to put their time into someone your age over the young lad smashing the heavybag in the corner?
But the second you say that something is impossible you might as well give up on life

 

Look up Sugar Lucas Browne. Started at 32