Fight Night Career

Though EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3 has amazing multiplayer, its single-player career mode is equally compelling. There's something very satisfying about fighting your way through the amateur ranks, proving your worth and then getting a shot at the title.

Fight Night Round 3 offers plenty of features to help enrich the experience. Here's a quick breakdown of just what you can expect from the career mode in Fight Night Round 3.

Through the Ranks
Looking at the basics, the game offers the opportunity to start as a nothing boxer and earn your chance at boxing immortality with the title shot every fighter craves. Create your fighter from scratch or pick a pre-existing boxer (such as Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones Jr., or Muhammad Ali) and start your career from day one. Fight through amateur ranks all the way up to the top of the food chain for that elusive belt.

Sweat and blood never looked so good.

Train Up
Of course, a boxer's career isn't just about the time in the ring. Prepare for each fight by training. The trick here is that you only focus your training in one area. Provided you have money to do it, you can also hire a trainer that specializes in specific types of training.

Hit the weight room and do some heavy lifting before a fight to improve four of your stats, but weight lifting reduces a couple as well (though not by too much). Weight lifting increases your power, but with all that extra muscle mass, your goes down reduced slightly.

Specialty fights have special prizes that use a
different set of rules to determine the outcome.

Contracts
It's nice to see Fight Night Round 3 acknowledge the basic structure of the sport of boxing. Unlike team sports, or even tennis or golf, which have governing bodies that determine when events will be played, and who will play against each other, boxing matches are determined by contract.

Get deemed worthy enough by an opponent or their management and you're offered an opportunity to fight them. Typically, during your career in Fight Night Round 3, there are several different contract options to choose.

Ducking and dodging.

Equipment
Much like EA SPORTS' other solo sport offering Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 06, you can purchase new equipment with your winnings. This equipment actually enhances different abilities. Gloves increase power, boots boost speed, trunks improve your stamina, and so on. Save money prudently, as much of the special equipment is very expensive.

Specialty Fights
To add a bit of spice and variety to your boxing career, specialty fights are offered with special prizes (often extra money). These battles use a different set of rules to determine the outcome. For example, the Hard Hits fights do away with timed rounds. Instead, each round ends when an opponent is knocked down. Score the most amounts of knockdowns and win the fight.

This is the basic structure of Fight Night Round 3's career mode, but there's much more as you go along. From the popularity your fighter gains, to the increase of named fighters you have the opportunity to tangle with, to the press conferences you hold when preparing for a high-profile bout, there's plenty more to discover as you progress.

Article by Alex McLain