Oakland’s For The Win Is a Haven for Female and Nonbinary Boxers

Coach Rae Black has been boxing long enough to recognize the “sweet science” needs to update some of its formulas.

For all the big-ticket narratives boxing sells about rags-to-riches success, it has generally been exclusionary towards women athletes of any background or skill level — or really anyone who’s not a straight man. That was a glaring omission for Black.

Growing up in the ’90s, Black heard plenty of discouraging messages about boxing. When they got interested in the sport, their mother told them “women don’t box” and “you’re too pretty to get hit.” Black still got hit, injured and concussed while playing soccer and rugby, and eventually found their way into the ring.

When they became a coach, Black noticed a pattern. Women would come to the gym, but the culture did not encourage them to stay. So they created a space for women, queer, nonbinary and trans boxers to train: For The Win Boxing in Oakland.

“I wanted to create a space where women could see themselves and thrive,” says Black, who opened the gym in 2023. “There’s a difference between a space that allows women and a space that really supports women, a space that puts women forward and makes sure their female athletes are getting the right kind of attention.”

At best, boxing has been slow or reluctant to platform women. At worst, it has a troubling history of looking the other way at domestic violence, homophobia and misogyny, and its recent transphobic panic at the Olympics and beyond hasn’t helped. These are systemic issues, and For The Win wants to change them from the ground up.

“By producing quality athletes … my hope is to have that be what sells [women fighters],” says Black, “like Claressa Shields, and Katie Taylor, Chantelle Cameron, Savannah Marshall and quite a few others who don’t use hyper-feminization to get notoriety.”

In previous decades, promoters only sold women’s fights for novelty, the male gaze or to cash in on a famous father’s name. Women’s boxing has only been in the Olympics since 2012. The first women’s fight to headline “the mecca” of boxing, New York City’s Madison Square Garden, only transpired two years ago, on April 30, 2022, when Katie Taylor fought Amanda Serrano.

These strides are encouraging, but they’re long overdue. Now, Black is investing sweat equity into boxing’s future and modeling how people assigned female at birth can be successful in a fighter’s corner.

Black’s philosophy is what attracted two dedicated students to eventually form For The Win’s amateur boxing team. Jackie Espejo is a queer Filipina graphic designer who was always curious about boxing. Googling places to try the sport, she saw reviews calling out gyms for misogyny. Eventually, she found Black’s website, and saw that For The Win offers sliding-scale rates for students — another key way Coach Rae is advocating for an equitable environment.

“I think I manifested Rae,” says Espejo. “The landing page had a video of Rae holding mitts for a woman, and it fit the vibe that I was exactly looking for, so I knew right then and there I had to hit them up.”

Espejo boxed strictly for a cardio workout with Black for four years until 2023, when she took up sparring and eventually fought in a match. Her amateur record is now 2-1.

“Once I put my mind to boxing and developed a way better discipline for it, I felt more balanced as far as my spiritual health, my mental health and physical health,” Espejo says.

For The Win’s other fighter, Pavin Argyle (5-1 amateur record), has always been a multi-sport athlete. After training off of YouTube, and briefly going to a different gym, they found Black. Argyle was encouraged that Black shared a similar sports background, which has given the two a common language.

“The way you have to throw this punch is kind of like throwing sidearm in baseball, or moving your feet this way is like that side step in basketball, so them specifically, I don’t feel like there’s anybody else who can really teach me as effectively as the way the teach me,” Argyle says.

She proceeds to tell a story about a time she was thrown into the ring with a more experienced male boxer, who stung her with a right-hand punch away from any coach’s watchful eyes. He was apologetic and she was fine, but Argyle knows now, “there’s no reason I should have been in that situation,” she says. “And if I was in that situation, my coach should have been paying attention to me. That’s just something that would never happen here. The level of trust we have with Rae is here because every sparring session, they make sure that everything is laid out on the table.”

Argyle wants to go pro eventually. Espejo doesn’t have that goal in mind at the moment, but both athletes will compete on Aug. 17 on an all women’s boxing card in Salinas, CA. They both fight that day, then Argyle takes a week off before flying to Hawaii for another bout.

Black, Espejo and Argyle literally built the ring at For The Win together. Espejo designed the logo. They aren’t just Coach Rae’s students, they’re keyholders. They hope boxing matures socially, and grows the way women’s basketball and soccer are surging.

“When we’re inclusive, everybody thrives, but there’s a scarcity mentality amongst women [in boxing] that if someone who doesn’t look like us — specifically gender-wise, even if they are nonbinary — gets something that we want, then there’s not enough to eat,” says Black. “That’s a really unfortunate challenge that we have.”

Combat sports gyms with For The Win’s mission and composition just don’t exist on any notable level yet — this is a unique, groundbreaking pursuit. For the Win is a positive take on the FTW acronym 2Pac made famous. Even though its mere existence notes a certain defiance, the team finds a level of peace in the good they are inviting into their space and combat sports as a whole.

“You will be able to discover your own inner strength,” says Espejo. “You might find out you’re a whole different-ass person in the ring than you are outside of the ring.”