'How Long Should I Train Before my 1st Amateur Fight?' Are You Ready for 1st Match?

A great question came up during our first podcast, asking how long should someone train before taking their first amateur fight (boxing, Muay Thai, MMA). Let's break down how a fighter and coach know when they are ready.

FOLLOW:

[juslas]

My first amateur Muay Thai fight is gonna be in 2 days. Wish me luck guys!

[ethancrockett]

I trained for 7 months in mma before my first fight two weeks ago and won 41 seconds into the first round by arm bar

[Anfernee.Clarke]

You've gotta study, challenge yourself in training sessions, and take care of your body (diets, no substances, etc.) Also, be confident as hell. Trust yourself.

[lachcik]

i just fought my first amateur mma fight last night. lost, took a lot of punches, but overall it was a fun experience and ill be doing it again in november. i just need to show up next time without being soo relaxed. if you watch the fight, NEF 35, i was the first fight and i was just too relaxed. as soon as i got hit good everything ive ever learned just went out the window. the cage is a completely different experience

[szabolaci]

I had my first "smoker" 7-8 months in without any background, but it really depends on the person, and how much you train . traning 3 times a week for 8 months and traning 6 times a week for 8 months is not the same thing

[TitanousNoir]

Bro straight up.. Its all based on the individual and how fast they improve in there skills

[joshdejong]

CM Punk clearly doesn't have a coach he can trust.

[ltzubko]

I trained for about 5 months (boxing) before my first fight. I didn’t think I was ready but my coach did and all I needed was a little push. I ended up winning but it was damn close. The biggest thing I learned is I need to run my 5k more lmao

[PikUpYourPantsPatrol]

3 years, everyday, 100 SIT-UPS, 100 SQUATS, 100 PUSH-UPS, 10 KILOMETER RUN and never use heater or air-conditioner.

[dkmodder]

As a baseline median, you should take 4 months to 7 months before you are prepared to have full blown cage fights for 20 minutes or so. This is assuming you train atleast 1 hour a day and have a good coach/training partner. It took me 3 months to compete in amateur boxing and 5 month for amateur MMA, kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, and BJJ. I currently have a record of 10-0-0 and I'm 16.

[patrickconnors]

do you fight yourself. you seem to have a great depth of knowledge with regards to different martial arts.
i was an Amateur boxer with a relatively successful career. i trained from 8 to 10 before i had my first fight, and went onto have a record of 68-8-1. I won three national titles, a European gold, a silver and bronze, and world bronze i beat the Darren Barker, James degale and a few other well known names as well as lost to maxim golovkin ( the best boxer i ever fought imo) Andy Lee and Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov ( another phenomenal boxer).
i would say have your first amateur fight when you feel ready, but only if you have a great relationship with your coach and pay heed to his opinion and suggestion. it's also totally ok to lose a few starting off. don't give up. i remember paddy Barnes lost his first 5 amateur fights and he went on to become one of the best Amateur fighters out there.

[CarefaceKarl]

Had my first Muay Thai fight after 4 months of training but I trained in Thailand, thats also where i had my first fight. I trained 1-2 times a day and worked really hard tho. I was pretty fit before as well but my fight skills was shit. I had a great experience and won my first fight by KO in the third round. If anyone else is thinking about having their first fight id recommend to get some really tough sparring before and if you're worried about your shins hurting and all that cause thats what was on my mind id say dont worry to much about it, it didnt hurt at all and i took allot of leg and rib kicks. I didnt check much kicks, the adrenaline took away all the pain.

[TearitoffE]

I will be the future of UFC, Hopefully successful if anything!!

[vincentvega]

In the book Hagakuri (im not going to spell check that) otherwise known as, " The way of the Samurai", a very old Japanese book of compiled wisdom/thought s and general guide to how to live your life. Or in a modern take, the way to apply it, its basically, "how to be a gangster...with honor" lol. Seriously. Its the book featured in the movie "Ghost Dog" with Forrest Whitaker. it has a passage, (this is not word for word ok) but it basically says that a Samurai should recklessly throw themselves into situations and that decisions shouldn't take more than seven breaths. So like In Fight Club, get in to a fight once (be smart and dnt fight a gang or whatever) but once you break the ice, its truly life changing. You find out so much about yourself and so much more that i wont get into. Its my advice.or at least get hit a few times to kill the fear of the over hyped consicuences of getting hit in your head (again dont be dumb weighing 120lb starting a fight with a 6ft 6 bouncer or something) and don't get arrested (if u lose u probably wont be) i know i may sound crazy lol but it's liberating. I highly recommend the book though. The philosophy will be much better understood. An amazing read!

[TheTom]

Similar to Shane, I have a black belt in Shotokan Karate and have done a fair amount of point sparring in competitions. I've been training Muay Thai now for about 5 months and I still have a lot to learn before I would feel ready to fight. It's a whole different game to step into and it takes time.

[ghiv]

Lost my first fight, but survived till the last round. I'm just an underdog, my enemy was a good athlete, still proud of myself, gonna comeback stronger

[boodlhdood]

I am a 3rd degree brown belt in shorin ryu seibukan karate and have been training for 3 years 4 times a week but I started going 2 times a week 8 months ago, I have competed in a fair amount of in house tournaments, I personally trained for a year before competing in my first tournament

[derrickrichard]

I trained for almost 2 years before my first kickboxing match. however I probably could have completed after about a year with the frequency I was training at. had I been training more often and harder maybe 6 months or less. There's a lot of variables at play and everyone progresses differently. i was in average shape when I started but I also wasn't training that hard to get into fighting shape, just trained to learn the moves. I didn't start actually conditioning myself until about 6 months ago. the guy I fought had only been training seriously for 3-4 months or so and he did pretty well but there significant skills he had not mastered or developed yet so I won pretty easily. like Shane said, if you've got a good coach and you trust them, they will know best.

[codytheburden]

My coach says only I will know when I'm ready

[russthomo]

Currently doing Wimp2Warrior in Canberra. First fight is after 20 weeks, your advice is worrying :') love the videos, keep them up!