My son tried out, and said it was very tough. Mostly brutal runs. Not much boxing during the tryouts, but some, to assess toughness in general, as opposed to boxing skills. My son was cut, but encouraged to continue to work out with the team during the year, and try out next year again. He is an excellent athlete, but never boxed before. He said it was a great experience.
The boxing class is totally separate. They are taught boxing skills and training. Each kid has several bouts. They are graded on their performance. Every kid gets knocked around pretty good, and needs to fight hard. It's difficult to get a good grade. My son said the boxing tryouts helped him in the boxing class. Mostly I thing with understanding the mentality.
The lessons of the boxing class are far beyond learning to box.
To OP; every cadet is involved in sports. And unless you are on an NCAA or competitive club sport, you will be in company sports, and that sport will change each semester. My son is on crew team, which is a lot of work, but he enjoys being on the team. They travel to competitions and get to hang outside of WP which is a nice break.
They do a good job of matching size and ability, and there’s some rules that limit to the number of big right hands to the head per bout; obviously a nod to concern over concussions. The other thing he mentioned was since they limit the rounds to only 1 minute and you’re getting graded on it, rather than the “strategic art of boxing” it was really “tactical punching”… pretty much non-stop punch-throwing and defense-be-damned until the bell rang. The real boxing team is very different in that regard I'm sure, but I think it is essential that these future officers to get to learn first-hand what it’s like to be under truly personal and physical attack… take some shots, and press the fight back onto their opponent. It's one of the classes that remind you it's not a regular college.