Starcy Chen (in red), a radio host and marketing director, and Fiona Shang, a digital account manager, are the only female players in this year's Brawl on The Wall, a white collar boxing event held at the Park Hyatt in Beijing last Friday night. [Photo by Jiang Wanjuan/chinadaily.com.cn]

White collar boxing: a girl's fight

White collar boxing: never too old to fight

At the same time, combat is not only about picking the best fighters, but more importantly, picking out the fighters who best match. As the fighters need to be closely matched according to weight, some of the strong fighters have to drop out for not being able to find a suitable opponent in his weight class.

The motivations for the fighters to join include keeping fit, taking a challenge, relieving stress, and almost for everyone, fighting for a good cause.

All proceeds during the boxing show, from a raffle and live auction, go to Leo's Foundation, which provides medical treatment at Beijing Children's Hospital for under-privileged newborns with respiratory failure.

"I won't do it if it is not because of charity, although I am a fan of boxing." said 28-year-old Georgi Rachen from Germany, a project manager with Vamed, a global health care service provider. In the eyes of his colleagues, Rachen is hard-working and always on time, but most of them did not know the soft-spoken biomedical major with a MBA degree could fight like a boxer.

Compared with professional boxing, the bouts in an amateur fight are mercifully brief, with only three rounds of two minutes' fighting, and the referee can stop the fight at any stage if safety is compromised. Professional boxing can go beyond 10 bouts to decide the winner.

The white-collar fighters also wear lighter gloves than professionals, and are protected by headgear, which is not allowed in professional games.

"Zero injuries, aside from bloody noses, have been recorded in over 1,500 bouts sanctioned by the World White Collar Boxing Association," noted CSP founder Shane Benis.