Five Qualities a World Champion must possess

By: Psychologist Diana Sosa, member of the Medical Committee of the World Boxing Council

The dream of every amateur and professional boxer is to become a world champion. All boxers dream of conquering a belt and defended the status as champions as long as possible.

For a boxer to become champion of division, involves several factors; such as; discipline, perseverance, training sessions, accumulated hours of sparring, defeats, failures, efforts, sacrifices, joys, sadness and a host of extra situations.

Becoming a world champion is undoubtedly a difficult task, but staying as a champion is even more so, because as the sports career progresses, the rivals become tougher and therefore the fighter must improve and refine boxing style.

Likewise, the life of the fighter changes drastically when he becomes world champion, so he must work on some things both in a sporting and personal way. What qualities should a world champion have? Let’s look the top 5.

1.- As mentioned above, he must be disciplined. And discipline requires being 100% focused in all aspects: training, eating, resting and having a very marked discernment between personal life and sports. The fighter who is already a world champion must split the difference with iron discipline since a slight mistake can cost him the lot. At this point, heeding all the instructions of his trainer and his team is a must.

2.- He must be motivated. Motivation is constantly changing. Many fighters talk about the “hunger to win” they have before they become world champions. Therefore, when they reach the top, they should always rethink their goals so that their motivation does not wane. If before the motivation was to be a champion, the objective has changed, and a different plan must be found to keep it alive.

3.- He must be realistic. It is true that the boxer becomes a world champion, but there have been many cases where the boxer “loses the ground” and this can lead him to present an excess of confidence. With the above, the fighter can present behaviors such training overconfidence, not carrying out the same routine as he may believe that “it is not necessary”, since “there is no one better than him” and this can reduce his sporting quality. He must be respectful of any rival he is going to face and be aware that they are all different, successful and the probability of losing is 50/50.

4.- He must learn to be tolerant. And this is that the more he advances in his career, both the praise and the criticism will increase. Good comments will get to him, however he must also assertively confront all those who could be unpleasant, insulting and even want to harm or destabilize him personally or sportingly speaking. Here it is very important that he continues to surround himself with a good work team that keeps him focused on his work and that both things (criticism and praise) do not influence his performance.

5.- Do not trust anyone. There are plenty of examples of boxers who, upon becoming world champions and having considerable economic income, have surrounded themselves with false friendships, with people who have led them to commit illicit acts and keep them away from sports behavior, bringing them dangerously close to neglecting their career and risk behaviors such as addictions. It is very important that they are responsible for their actions and that they remain alert to this type of situation, since if they do not do so, they could incur in behavior that has dire consequences.

As we can see, being world champion is a great responsibility. For an athlete it is very gratifying to be recognized throughout the world for the effort and achievements they have had, however since they are champions, the work and effort go double: to stay current and with all the weight and responsibility that entails being a recognized figure worldwide.