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Seconds out, Round One. If you're cruising for a bruising and subscribe to the no pain, no gain school of life, then World Championship Boxing Manager should be right up your street.

Picking out your own boxers at the ripe old age of eighteen, your task is to manage them through the rough and tumble world of professional boxing, bringing them up through the rankings and giving them shots at the big prize titles, as well as making a tidy profit. for yourself, of course.

Within your own office, the options available should keep you busy for a little while at least. There's a filing cabinet to keep you updated on as many as 100 different boxers, a handy filofax for rapid information access, and a phone for you to keep in touch with the friendly opposition to arrange and confirm fights.

Outside of the office, you can take a trip to the physio to check up on your latest signing's fitness, or in the gym you can set about a little training to keep him in trim.

Each week, you are invited to attend an evening of classic bouts, where you can listen to leather on face and body. But, if you don't feel up to it, you can always catch the results of each fight by mail, or by sending along a scout to watch in your place.

When you actually get round to setting up a fight, don't be greedy or overeager to lift your signing's ranking too soon. If you try to match your raw slugger against a title holder for example, his manager will tell you where to get off in no uncertain terms. Also, if you ask for too much of the purse to begin with, you won't find too many opponents for your prize fighter.

By taking it easy, you can arrange some beneficial bouts that will see your fighter rising through the ranks at a swift rate of knots. But don't forget to confirm each fight with the boxing boards, either the Federation of World Boxing, or the World council of International Boxing, or the bout will be cancelled.

As for the gruelling slugging matches themselves, in between each of the ten rounds, you get the chance to step in the ring with your seconds to administer much needed relief to your star.

The cold iron will help for the bruising, while the water bottle and adrenalin will refresh him for the next onslaught.

Changing fight tactics between rounds can also help to unsettle your opponent in the ring, and could lead to that all important knockout blow.

Despite not being able to watch the bouts, you certainly get a feel for the action from the dialogue. Boxing Manager is extremely playable, the graphics are good, and if you like management games, this one will be hard to beat (urgh!).