BARUCH COLLEGE–Inside a room on 8th Avenue, flags from Latin American countries like Guatemala, Ecuador and Mexico adorn the wall, and the heat keeps boxing students, ages 8 to 60, sweating as they complete their defense session for the day.
Raul’s Boxing House Club in Sunset Park didn’t start like your average boxing gym with tall mirrors built into walls, or speedbags and heavy bags dropped from chains in the ceiling. It was an underground gym in a basement belonging to Raul Mizhquiri, 47.
Of course, the gym had mirrors, but Mizhquiri snagged them from the street and threw them in his van to decorate the so-called gym, because a boxing gym needs mirrors.
As a former boxer hailing from Ecuador, Mizhquiri knows the value of consistency and resilience, something he tries to instill in his students. In 2015, after Mizhquiri’s landlord discovered the underground setup and kicked him out of the basement, he started thinking about how to expand his pugilist’s temple.
