Train for boxing competition, not for recovery

If it works for you :good

 

An 800 metre run is about 50% aerobic. During a 100 metre sprint they are slowing down before the finish line. At about 5-6 seconds a person can run their fastest.
Amateurs are 3 rounds and as you continue with an 800 metre run you're slowing down as you go. You're better off doing high intensity intervals for 3 minute rounds imo, you'll achieve far higher intensities of effort and more of it than during an 800 metre run. Often you see boxing considered around 60/40 anaerobic aerobic which is similar to an 800 metre run but if you think about it boxing isn't cyclic in nature like running, it is acyclic so it's more difficult to estimate energy system contributions (it's not continuous like an 800 metre run), you throw flurries of punches that are equivalent to sprints then move around a little bit. You could treat you 3 minute rounds as fartlek training, yell out when you want your boxer to sprint and when to stop and jog slowly. Make it unpredictable like a bout.

 

That explains a lot :roll:
Let me guess, your vertical treadmill and a bout of stretching can solve all the worlds problems?

 

Even if you're running at VO2max that's only around 30% of your peak power. If you run continuously you're not running fast when aerobic metabolism takes over. When you run intervals you get a better aerobic response between intervals than running continuously. Performing repeat sprint intervals builds your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems at the same time and to a far greater extent than continuous running. The more time you spend at over VO2max the more it improves, which is what intervals allow you to do. Also hill sprints don't build speed, they just put stress on your knees and if done too often they alter proper running biomechanics.
Long distance running is most certainly not the foundation for all athletics. Even long distance athletes use intervals when they're trying to improve. Long distance by nature is low intensity, no matter how fast you think you're running. You adapt to what you train for, no more and no less. Your body doesn't just one day think "Oh I've put a lot of kilometres in, now I can run faster and at a higher intensity". You have to run fast to be fast. You have to use strength to get stronger.

 

If you want to work on speed then keep it under 60 metres on flat ground, when you're fresh.

 

That is super risky when it comes to injury, I'd never recommend downhill sprints to anyone unless they were already supremely conditioned and it was only a very slight angle.