What's the difference between amateur and pro?

Amateur means nobody pays you. Rounds are shorter, there is more gear on you, and the rules cut out the things that hurt people. Matchmaking is meant to be even, because the point of the level is to learn.

Pro means you are licensed, you are paid, gear comes off, rounds get longer, and the result follows you for life. It is a job, with a commission and medicals attached.

Underneath both sit the point formats, point Muay Thai sparring and point boxing, scored on clean controlled technique. That is where most people should find out whether they like this, and it is where I corner: Fight-Day Corner.

Almost nobody reading this needs to think about pro. I turned pro in MMA at 42, and I have walked fighters from a first class to The Ultimate Fighter and the UFC, six of them, Tony Ferguson included. Every one of those started with a few amateur bouts and no idea how it would go.

What amateur rules require changes from promotion to promotion, so read the sheet rather than assuming. Divisions tend to be kinder there too, which is one more reason nobody should be cutting hard for a first one: whether you have to cut weight.

The route people forget is not fighting at all. A no-gi bracket gives you the weigh-in, the nerves and a stranger who wants to beat you, without the punching: doing a grappling tournament instead.

Either way the readiness question is the same: how to know if you are ready to compete. Get some amateur or point matches in first, and after that the pro question either answers itself or stops mattering to you.