The wide range of emotions felt in the ring can be a boxer’s best friend or worst enemy.

For Luke Martel, the thing he has learned over his two and a half years in the sport is to keep his in check.

“As far as your emotions go, it’s one of the biggest things you have to keep under control,” Martel said of his budding amateur career. “You better be ready to go when you get in there or you’re going to get hurt.”

There is the nervousness before the bell rings and the anticipation once it does. Some get angry and aggressive, while others try to stay patient and composed.

Make no mistake. Boxing is not like a fight on the street corner. More often than not the two boxers harbor no ill will — just the common goal of winning and leaving the ring with fewer cuts and bruises.

“Winning is what gives you that aggression,” said
Martel.

Getting hit in the face is just something that is inevitable and something all boxers must deal with.

“You don’t like getting hit in the face the first couple times, but you can get used to it,” he said.

When Martel first saw the sport of mixed martial arts, he immediately knew it was something he would like to pursue.

Yet his parents were not too excited about the sport of MMA. Despite it being among the fastest growing sports in the world, it is also perhaps the most violent.

So respecting his parents concerns, Martel turned to the world of boxing, which is a sport that used to be at the top of the fighting landscape.

He got some pointers from a friend who was an MMA champion and hooked up with Sam Nieves, a trainer and former boxer out of New Ipswich.

While Martel is far from the professional ranks, only fighting for real on one occasion, it doesn’t mean the training is any less demanding.

“It was so much work, so much commitment,” he said. “You have to make time every day and it’s tough.”

Leading up to his one and only fight thus far on Dec. 5, Martel truly found out that training is something that needs a fighter’s full attention.

“Now that I’m fighting, you have to [train] every day,” he said.

As the fight approached, Martel trained six days a week for over a month and felt he was ready.

But on that night, Martel, fighting at 152 pounds, was edged out in a three-round decision. While losing is something that nobody likes to endure, Martel has learned from it.

“A lot of guys lose their first fight,” said Martel. “It’s tough. But you’ve got to come back from it.”

He watched the videotape and now understands what he did wrong and more importantly, what he needs to do better the next time.

A shoulder injury sustained in the fight has limited his training, but boxing isn’t just about getting into the ring and throwing punches.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” said Martel of the fight. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”

Leading up to his debut, Martel spent time on the heavy bag, working with pads and shadow boxing, much like you see in the movies. There is also footwork, jumping rope and a lot of abdominal training involved, which play as important a role to winning a fight than jabs or uppercuts.

Martel found a training facility through Nieves at West End Gym in Lowell, Mass., also the home to Micky Ward, a former junior welterweight professional.

“It’s just a really solid gym,” Martel said.

When he makes the trip to Lowell, Martel goes for four hours at a time and when he can’t get there, Martel will do all he can at home for a few hours a day.

He runs about two miles each day, mostly outside, but when the weather is too cold, Martel takes to the treadmill with a couple sweatshirts to get the necessary workout in. It is at least something he has been able to do despite the injury.

“There’s a lot of cardio to be honest,” he said.

And while Martel wants nothing more than to get back in the ring and get the bad taste of his debut loss out of his mouth, he knows that it wouldn’t be smart until his injury is fully healed.

“I’m hoping to be back in a month,” Martel said in a late December interview.

Martel has his sights set on the Golden Gloves Tournament at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in February, but only if he is healthy enough to compete.

“As long as you’re healthy, you can fight as much as you want,” he said. “I can’t wait. You do all this training and you can’t wait to get back into it.”

Despite the fact that he is only one fight into his career, Martel has taken the time to look at what lies ahead.

Nobody gets into boxing for a leisurely activity and Martel is ready to do all he can to get better.

And it will start with his next fight, an event he has been thinking about since the night of Dec. 5.