Barker Talks Boxing

Daydreaming in the Walmart parking lot at 4th Street and Frankford Avenue of having her own business is now in the past for Rosie Barker — today, she is on the inside looking out.

Barker started The Boxing Club at 419 Frankford Avenue in 2008 and has not looked back. The gym consists of members of all ages, including young people and Tech students.

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The Wal-Mart parking lot was the place Barker said she used to stare at a nearby empty space for lease and visualize her dreams becoming a reality. After much research, she said she fell in love with the Frankford location and set her plan in motion.

Barker set out to open her own gym after she visited her hometown of Levelland, Texas, to coordinate her high school reunion. She said she needed a place to work out at the time but could not find a gym in the area with the equipment she needed.

“So I went back to California with this great idea, ‘let’s open up a gym,’” Barker said. “There’s nothing like that here.”

The Boxing Club contains top-of-the-line boxing equipment. Multiple punching bags hang from the ceiling, allowing more members to participate at once. During workouts, rock music booms from multiple speakers throughout the gym.

Barker said she gets to know members on a personal basis, including any injuries they may have.

“I know all members by name, by any physical ailments they have — bad knee, bad shoulder — you name it, I know it.”

Brooke Fielden, a restaurant, hotel and institutional management major at Tech, said she enjoys the overall workout she receives when she takes a class at the gym.

“I like that it’s like a full body workout,” she said, “and I like that it pressures you to keep working.”

Jay Mancilla, 20, is also a member and just had his first child. He said he changed his ways and turned to boxing for an escape from the temptations he used to succumb to before he gained the responsibility of being a father.

“That’s all I did before I came here was just party and a lot of bad stuff,” Mancilla said. “Once my girlfriend got pregnant, I completely cleared everything and started working out.”

Mancilla has been a member at The Boxing Club for four months. He said he has already seen results and has developed a higher level of confidence.

“I feel a lot better, I look a lot better,” Mancilla said. “Before when I was working at my last job, I had an apron on and I wouldn’t even wear the apron because I could just see my gut growing.”

Mancilla said he has lost a large amount of weight and is training to start competing as an amateur in the sport of boxing.

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Rosie Barker helps a boxing student.

Barker said The Boxing Club has varying membership options for people like Mancilla and Fielden. She said she offers discounts to Tech students and encourages them to join, even if it is something they have never done before.

She said she is blessed to have such a large following, but she is always looking for others like Mancilla and Fielden to join the family.

“We’ll embrace you, we’ll hug you,” Barker said. “We’ll love you.”

 

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