Personal training manager Danielle Perkins opens up about her career as a pro boxer — and the role Equinox played in her journey.
Danielle Perkins remembers spending her childhood days parked in front of the TV with her dad, watching Mike Tyson knock out his opponents without breaking a sweat. The elite boxer “never got hit” in his fights, and to a young Perkins, “it looked like a lot of fun,” she recalls with a laugh. It was only natural for her to want to grow up to be just like him.
Understandably, her parents had other — safer — plans. They handed her a basketball instead.
Perkins went on to become an All-American athlete in high school and a basketball player at St. John’s University. After graduation, she was a pro-baller overseas until a car accident brought her career to a standstill. In 2012, Perkins became a manager at Equinox, a job that took up so much of her time, she struggled to squeeze in workouts. The new gig, combined with the general stress of recovery, left her searching for a new athletic outlet. Enter: boxing. “Honestly, I've never wanted to hit somebody so bad in my life before,” she says. “I needed to do something in order to, like, get that frustration out.”
