The career page

Lead story

Boxing Career Simulator: from the amateurs to a world title, one camp at a time

A free boxing career game. Raise a prospect through the gyms, the small halls and the regional titles, turn pro, climb the rankings, win the belt and defend it — then retire and find out which real boxer your career most resembled.

Boxing Career is a life sim for the sweet science: you are the fighter, not the promoter. Every run opens with a young prospect — pick from a dozen origins, from the Mexican border gyms to Philadelphia basements and the Eastern European amateur systems — and every choice from there shapes the boxer you become: which gym you join, which trainer you trust, whether you build a jab-and-move style or walk people down to the body, how you handle the money, the injuries, the promoter who wants a signature and the rival who keeps turning up on the same bill.

Once you turn pro it is two moves a year. Four-rounders to learn the trade, six and eight to build a record, then the ten-round regional titles and the twelve-round nights that decide whether you were ever really a contender. Fights play out round by round with knockdowns, cuts, scorecards and a corner decision in the middle: go for the finish, stick to the plan, or survive to the bell.

How to play the boxing career game

• Pick a prospectReroll the three and read their hidden potential: power, hands, engine, chin. A rare puncher is worth a bad start.
• Come up through the amateursGyms, coaches, tournaments and school; spend the money and the years where they pay.
• Turn proWin on the small-hall circuit, get a promoter, get ranked, climb from #15 to a mandatory. Two moves a year.
• Win the belt and keep itDefend it or be stripped for inactivity, then retire to your career grade and your closest real-boxer comparison.

Is this the one you want?

This is the longest run on the site. A career opens with a prospect and closes with retirement and a grade, and once you turn pro you only get two moves a year, so a full lifetime is several sittings rather than one. It saves automatically. Pick it if you want to be the fighter. If you would rather run the sport, the Boxing Manager game puts you behind the desk with a stable of real boxers; if you want one fight settled now, the simulator does it in a minute.

More free boxing games

From the same paper as the free boxing simulator. Try Boxing Manager, where you run the stable instead of fighting in it. The whole shelf is on the free boxing games page, with notes on playing where boxing games are blocked, on a phone or on a PC, and a chart of the boxing weight classes.