Do You Have to Be a Boxer to Make a Realistic Boxing Videogame?
And Are Boxers, Trainers, Historians, and Film Study Needed in the Studio?
This debate keeps resurfacing, and it keeps derailing meaningful discussion.
The claim is simple and sounds logical on the surface:
“If you have never boxed, you cannot make a realistic boxing videogame.”
It is also wrong. Worse, it has become a convenient shield used to defend shallow mechanics, weak AI, and underdeveloped systems.
The truth is more nuanced, less romantic, and far more demanding.
1. The Fundamental Mistake: Confusing Experience With Translation
Boxing experience and the ability to model boxing are not the same skill.
A boxer:
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Reacts instinctively
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Adjusts subconsciously
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Operates on feel, rhythm, and habit
A videogame:
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Requires explicit rules
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Requires measurable variables
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Must expose cause and effect
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Must behave consistently across thousands of situations
If someone cannot clearly explain why something happens in boxing in repeatable terms, they cannot design it. That is true regardless of how much they boxed.
Realism in games comes from translation, not participation.
2. Boxing Videogames Are Systems, Not Memories
A realistic boxing videogame is not built from personal recollection.
It is built from interacting systems:
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Distance and spacing
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Timing and initiative
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Risk and commitment
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Fatigue and recovery
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Damage accumulation
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Psychological pressure
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Tactical decision making
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AI adaptation
If even one of these systems is shallow, the illusion of boxing breaks. No amount of boxing background compensates for weak system design.
Systems do not care about résumés.
3. Why Boxing Experience Alone Often Hurts Design
This is uncomfortable but necessary to say.
When boxing experience is treated as unquestionable authority, it often leads to:
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Gut feeling overriding structure
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“That would never happen” logic ignoring edge cases
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Resistance to abstraction
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Designing for ego instead of outcomes
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Confusing restriction with realism
Real boxing is messy. Fighters make bad decisions. They panic. They abandon game plans. They repeat mistakes.
Games that chase “authentic feel” without systems often erase these realities and replace them with clean, heroic, predictable behavior. That is not realism. It is fantasy boxing.
4. The Question Studios Should Ask, But Rarely Do
The important question is not:
“Did you box?”
It is:
“Can you explain your boxing systems under pressure?”
Ask any developer:
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Why does missing a punch matter?
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How does stamina change decision making?
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What happens when a fighter panics?
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How do tendencies override player intent?
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What stops perfect defense?
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How does distance actually punish mistakes?
If the answers are vague, defensive, or rely on “you would understand if you boxed,” the systems are weak.
5. Realism Is Behavioral, Not Visual
Most boxing games chase realism in the wrong place.
They focus on:
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Motion capture
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Punch variety
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Broadcast presentation
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Big cinematic moments
Realism lives in behavior:
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Fighters freezing after being clipped
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Pressure fighters overcommitting when tired
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Slick boxers losing discipline late
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Bad habits surfacing under stress
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Styles clashing in unpredictable ways
These are AI and systems problems, not animation problems. Boxing experience does not automatically solve them.
6. Where Boxers, Trainers, Historians, and Film Study Actually Fit
Yes, these roles are needed. But they are not designers. They are domain authorities.
Boxers
Boxers are invaluable for:
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Describing emotional and psychological pressure
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Identifying when behavior feels fake
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Explaining what happens when plans break down
They validate outcomes, not implementations.
Trainers
Trainers are often more useful than boxers for:
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Tactical structure
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Adjustment logic
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Style matchups
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Discipline versus chaos
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Long term habit formation
They think in systems naturally, which maps well to AI behavior.
Historians
Historians prevent modern bias and flattening of styles.
They help with:
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Era specific pacing and rules
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Style evolution
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Cultural approaches to boxing
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Avoiding present day assumptions
Without them, every era plays the same.
Film Study
Film study is non negotiable.
Not highlights. Not montages. Full rounds.
Film study reveals:
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True exchange frequency
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Miss rates
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Recovery time
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Distance errors
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Repetitive habits
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Ugly, uncinematic moments
Film settles arguments and replaces memory with evidence.
7. The Correct Studio Structure
This is where studios succeed or fail.
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Systems designers and AI engineers build the mechanics, rules, sliders, states, and penalties.
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Boxers, trainers, and historians validate outcomes, flag unrealistic behavior, and provide correction.
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Film study acts as the final authority when opinions conflict.
When boxing authorities override systems design, realism suffers.
When systems ignore boxing authorities, realism collapses.
When film study is missing, ego replaces evidence.
8. Why the Myth Persists
The “you must have boxed” argument survives because it is useful.
It shuts down criticism.
It avoids accountability.
It reframes design flaws as ignorance.
If realism were actually present, it would not need gatekeeping to defend it.
9. The Truth About Hybrid Games and False Realism
Many boxing games are intentionally hybrids:
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Forgiving timing
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Artificial momentum
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Overpowered defense
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Predictable AI behavior
They feel like boxing.
They look like boxing.
They are not simulations.
Calling them realistic lowers the bar and poisons the conversation about what is possible.
Realism is about consequence, not comfort.
10.
You do not need to be a boxer to make a realistic boxing videogame.
You do need:
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Deep systems thinking
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Respect for the sport
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Willingness to embrace discomfort
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Obsession with cause and effect
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Courage to let fights be messy, ugly, and unfair
Boxing games do not fail because developers did not box.
They fail because developers did not design boxing deeply enough.
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