“Do boxers feel fear?” 

 By Psychologist Diana Sosa. Member of the WBC Medical Committee 

Can a boxer be afraid before a fight? The answer is yes. First of all, let’s learn the definition of fear.

Fear is the feeling of anguish caused by the presence of a real or imaginary danger, in addition to be a feeling of distrust that leads one to believe that an event contrary to what is desired will occur. 

 Fear is an emotion that occurs in all living beings and boxers, before being high-performance athletes, are people who have exactly the same emotions, without any distinction. 

 Indeed, fear is an unpleasant emotion, it is very basic and classified in the primary emotions, but it can be beneficial or harmful, depending on the approach we give it. 

Fear is divided into 2 and it is very important that we guide it to the sport field, specifically the fear that a boxer could present. 

• The natural fear, which comes in a real situation, towards something unknown and that moves us to defense and protection. 

• The irrational fear of an unreal situation that can be paralyzing, can terrify and is pathological. 

Boxers may be afraid of different issues, such as fear towards their professional debut, losing a fight, not doing a good job or having a good performance, being injured, sporting failure, losing their lives. In addition, they have repeatedly expressed that this fear extends to their families, since by dedicating themselves to a high-risk sport, the family fears losing their loved one and this is assumed by the boxer. 

Naturally, the human body is not made to receive punches and it is normal to be afraid of pain. Despite this assertion, many boxers have stated that they are not afraid of blows or pain, they even say they have never had it. Maybe it’s because as the years go by, their pain threshold increases, they can control all their emotions before entering the ring. But the fear factor never completely disappears and that’s totally acceptable, since as we said before, there is a type of fear that makes the athlete cautious and forces him to take precautions to care for and safeguard his health and his life. 

 The boxers know better than anyone, consciously or unconsciously, that they are defending their life and that it change dramatically after a punch, a slight oversight in an instant. So the threat of being knocked out and losing everything is latent and therefore the fear does not completely disappear in the boxer. 

 Can fear be reduced in the boxer? Of course, yes. Psychologically speaking, many issues must be worked on, for example dealing with the one who loses fear in the face of defeat. The defeat is implicit in the career of almost all athletes (there are few and extreme cases of those boxers who retire undefeated). So the coach must work on this fear by encouraging the boxer to concentrate more on the work done during the preparation than on spending energy thinking about what the result will be. 

Likewise, if a boxer is afraid of losing his life, he should be reinforced to make use of all the recommendations and regulations regarding his safety. That he doesn’t train tired, that he uses equipment in good condition when training, sparring and during fights. That he has a good diet, because if he does not follow a professional management of his weight and nutrition, he punishes the body in a double way and these can be factors that doubly endanger his health and his life.