But for 20 Queenstown women, the risk of being hit square in the face or abdomen is getting all the more real as they compete for a spot in June's Winter Festival "Thriller inthe Chiller" fight night.
This year's boot camp for women proved very popular and organiser Simon Green said three female fights at the Thriller were likely.
Since March 19, 60 contenders have been training four days a week at 6.30am to win one of the 20 spots - a total of 10 three-round fights for charity.
The hired professional trainers take the competitors through an hour of hard work, which varies from burpies (squat thrusts), to skipping, jogging, hill sprints and an occasional spar and knock to the nose.
Arrowtown's Alice Cournane (27) signed up this year and said she was rocked when she showed up for the first training four weeks ago to find 19 other females keen to go the distance in the ring as well.
But rolling with the punches, Miss Cournane said there was nothing stopping her from making it through the five-week contender camp.
"I'm keen to get out of my comfort zone. This is something completely foreign to me.""It's not natural to hit other girls, but you're in the ring; it's sport. It's not 'I am going to smash you' type of thing," Miss Cournane explained.
"I don't think I've ever had that kind of physical contact - maybe hair-pulling with my sister."
If Miss Cournane gets through to the next phase, she and 19 male and female fighters will enter eight weeks of more technical training before the June 30 giant fight night, which traditionally attracts a crowd of up to 1500.
Another of the hopefuls, Rachel Hellyer, said although she had not yet punched any of her fellow competitors, she had taken a few blows from the trainers, which had come as "a bit of a shock".
"It makes you a bit angry ...[but] it's all for charity."
And on the other 19 females in contention: "There's a few who throw a pretty hard punch. It'll be entertaining."
