Raquel Binns is a fighter. It’s part of her history, her makeup. She kickboxed; she debuted in Kung Fu by choking out her opponent; she lives above her family-owned martial arts school in Brooklyn.
So when Binns wanted to pivot full-time to boxing, she wasn’t interested in the trainer’s suggestion that they stick to the bags.
“I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m a fighter. That’s what I want to do,” Binns says.
The trainer, Ronnie Minardi, was a tough sell in the beginning. He was philosophically against women fighting, worried that a wayward punch could ruin their chances of giving birth.
Minardi, having been ingrained in the old-school way and trained by 1960s welterweight pro Tony Fortunato, had no use nor interest in women boxing.
“But she gave me the sad face,” Minardi says in his thick New York accent. “And was like, ‘C’mon coach, I won’t let you down.’”
Binns did not disappoint.
Last month, the 28-year-old mother became the national amateur champion at 141 pounds, blitzing through the field despite entering the tournament with 0 — yes, ZERO — previous boxing matches.
It’s quite a story.
Less than three years ago, Binns was a new mother graduating Stony Brook University and on her way to dental school. She had already spent six years in the dental field, but fighting beckoned.
“It’s crazy,” Binns says, “but I’d rather get punched in the face.”
She dropped 80 pounds and toured the kickboxing circuit with her husband, Troy Binns, who was also competing. The traveling party included their newborn son, and Binns recalls being called for a bout in Ireland while in mid breast-feed.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” she says. “And then there was a tournament in Greece, where my husband was also competing, and we were passing him our son to each other based on whose turn it was.”
Binns captured bronze at the 2019 kickboxing world championships in Turkey, but then realized the other boxing — the sweet science — required her undivided attention.
And it didn’t take long to convince Minardi she was worthy of the commitment.
“I started to train her and I couldn’t believe the work ethic, how talented and how quickly she picked things up,” Minardi says. “She had all the reasons not to train. She had a baby. Her and her husband got married. She graduated college. And she put in more work — she still does — than all my boys.
“Every Saturday, she came in lighter and lighter. I was blown away. Realized I had something here.”
Already in her late 20s and behind the curve, Binns was eager for official bouts. She signed up for the Ring Masters tournament in March of 2020, which was also when a pandemic turned the city upside down.
So Binns’ debut was canceled. Indefinitely.
As gyms shut down because of COVID restrictions, even training was difficult. But Minardi and Binns plugged along.
“Sometimes he’d stay with me for three days out of the week, I would cook dinner, he would wash dishes,” Binns says. “Some days we’d train through Zoom, some days he’ll text me regimens to do for the day. Sometimes meet outside like at the beach.”
Another consequence of the pandemic was a shortage of sparring partners, especially women. Minardi subbed in men to fight Binns, who twice broke her nose and was encouraged to punch through the streaming blood. Minardi was also against a face guard.
“Coach believes your face needs to get tough,” Binns says. “You have to get used to getting punched in the face.”
Still, the training and sparring couldn’t translate to official bouts until the USA Boxing Nationals in Louisiana became a possibility. In any other year, Binns was ineligible. She neither qualified nor carried enough experience.
But the pandemic rendered Nationals an open tournament, and Binns’ eight kickboxing bouts got her in the door. The other requirement was video of Binns’ sparring a female fighter, which, again, wasn’t easy to produce.
Fortunately, former Golden Gloves champ Nisa Rodriguez stepped up and Binns was approved.
“She did some sparring with me, we recorded it, sent that in, and thank God it worked,” she said. “I cried. I was so happy. I was just excited to fight.”
Binns, a natural righty who is more comfortable in the southpaw stance, surprisingly breezed through the competition once she hit the ring in Shreveport. She won the title by defeating the 2019 champion, Kieondra Jackson, in the final.
“For her to do that and win the nationals, that says something. I’m truly impressed,” Minardi says. “We were in tears, me and her husband. We were sitting in the corner crying. When everybody left the ring, we’re still sitting there.”
It was an encouraging start to a career, for sure, but the next step remains complicated. Binns’ arrival was too late to push for the 2021 Olympics, and the next big tournament isn’t until the national Golden Gloves tournament in August.
The ultimate goal is to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and then parlay that exposure into a pro career.
Binns also wants to fit the training around having another baby.
“There’s not a lot of money in women’s professional boxing,” she says. “You need to have more on resume to get that money, to get signed, by somebody good. Olympics would be amazing, to win an Olympic medal would be amazing, but for me, it feels like I have to do that to make a name for myself. So that when I do go pro, I still won’t make as much as a male boxer, but just to make somewhere close to it. To show that I am who I am.”
She’s well on her way.