The Everyday Life of Tommy Rainone

There’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer.

 

It’s only when you dream that you fully envision the things in life that you truly love and strive for. It’s those things that keep you breathing and keep you fighting day after day. For as great as the visions may be, however, the truths of life that come along with them are often bittersweet and hard to swallow. Balancing our life passions with the realities of the world isn’t the easiest of tasks and not every individual can juggle the two accordingly.

As he goes about his life on a day to day basis, Plainview, New York resident Tommy Rainone is living his dreams on his own terms. Having a deep love for the sport of boxing since he was a youth, Rainone has parlayed that passion into the professional ranks, compiling a 12-2 record with 4 knockouts as a Welterweight while garnering the respect and support of his local community.

That is the side of himself that Rainone will always fight for, the side of himself that is deeply intertwined with what he believes in and what he truly loves to do. As deep as those desires may dig, however, Rainone understands the necessities and responsibilities that come along with them, which is one of the reasons that he works in the hospitality industry for Hilton Hotels as means of a steady income. While Rainone admits that life could be better, he is just as quick to point out that it could always be worse and carries with him a steady and optimistic outlook towards the world today.

In engaging with Rainone in further discussions, much is revealed about his life and beliefs. Whether speaking on his early struggles with an abusive stepfather, his love for traveling, or his enjoyment of everyday activities like clubbing and sports, Rainone lays everything on the table and doesn’t pull any punches or try to paint himself out to be anyone different than who he really is. If anything, his brutal honesty is what makes him even more likeable.

Rainone doesn’t shy away from the hardships that have brought him pain but would much rather speak about his joys in his life.  Throughout everything, he is just an everyday man trying to make it in this topsy-turvy world, and he has a lot of attributes that many of us can relate to. Speaking in his own words, this is the Everday Life of Tommy Rainone…

 

The Rest is History…

“Actually since I was about seven years old I really loved the sport of boxing. That was the first time I saw the movie ‘Rocky’. Like most kids I played little league baseball but after watching that movie I really wanted to find a boxing gym. My only problem was that back then I didn’t have access to the internet because it wasn’t around so I didn’t really know where to look. It was always a dream of mine but it just took me longer than expected to get into it. By the time I turned seventeen I was able to find a gym and the rest is history.”

 

 

Channeling My Anger…

“There’s no question about it, I was definitely able to channel a lot of my anger as a youth into boxing. Growing up I got kicked out of a couple of middle schools. I lived in Staten Island with father for a little bit and they put me in a Catholic School over there but it didn’t work. You can’t take a kid who’s been getting into trouble in public schools his whole life and put him in a Catholic school. I was a freshman at the time and it only took me about three months to get kicked out of that school. I went back to Long Island from there. My teenage years I was a very frustrated and angry person. I just had an attitude that the world was against me and boxing was an incredible outlet for me. Once I started getting into boxing I put the rest of the bullshit of drinking and using drugs off to the side and started really getting focused with my life.”

 

Like a Sponge…

“I remember it like I was yesterday when I went home from a hard day of training and I was wrapping up my hand wraps and I just couldn’t wait to go to the gym the next day. I was always the first one in the gym and the last one to leave. I just loved every second of it and whatever I was shown by my trainer during that day I would find time to work on in my free time. I would shadowbox at school and practice in front of my own mirror. I was just soaking it up like a sponge all day. I absorbed it and I just loved it.”

 

 

The Business of Boxing…

“What’s difficult about this sport is the business side of it. It’s no different if you ask a fighter from New York or a fighter from Montreal or California. The business aspect sucks and it’s just a very shady business. It’s a cutthroat business and you have a lot of people trying to get over on you. Regardless it’s not easy any which way. You can have a guy who is undefeated compared to a guy who is 15-15 and they both probably came up the same way. It’s very tough and it was initially surprising to me, just the whole business side of everything.”

 

Disappointing to this Day…

“What’s disappointing and is still disappointing to this day is that being loyal and decent doesn’t get you anywhere with promoters. I’ve been screwed over by quite a few promoters and I’ve been screwed over quite a few times. I was just supposed to fight recently in Long Island and I went through seven different opponents but the fight never came through. I said yes to seven different opponents but for various reasons none of them were considered worthy of fighting and nothing happened. I gave up New Year’s in training, I gave up celebrating my birthday, I gave up Christmas, and I trained my ass of for five weeks and I sold a lot of tickets. The promoter should have done what was right, which was flying someone in to fight me. So last night instead of fighting and getting a win I had to sit there as a spectator and watch other people do that.”

 

A Tough Game…

“It’s important trusting people in this business but there are really very few people than you can trust. Sometimes you have to lay everything out there but sometimes you have to hold back a bit. My trainer, Jorge, is a guy I trust more than anybody in this sport, both business wise and personally. I have all the faith in the world in him but as far as all the matchmakers, promoters, and even other fighters, they will say hello to your face but try to stab you in the back. Regardless of what you try to say it’s almost inevitable. You can lay all your cards on the table and tell them you are an honest guy, that you bring a lot to the table and sell a lot of tickets, and are ready to fight but it won’t get you anywhere. They will tell you what you want to hear but then they are always going in a different direction, whether they are trying to match you up tough or not even considering you at all. This is just a tough game.”

 

 

A Break from Life…

“My main passions in life are boxing and traveling. I love traveling and the travel bug hit me around 2002. I also work for Hilton Hotels so that helps out that I get my reservations and rooms for free because it pretty much covers half my expenses. I am just a normal guy and I do enjoy going to bars and clubs. I like sports, video games, working out, music, movies, and just everyday stuff. I haven’t even scratched the surface yet with the places I wanted to travel but first and foremost, when you travel you get to forget about the stresses of your everyday life, which are work related or otherwise. When you are on vacation those things don’t exist. Worrying about bills and the problems of life all disappear once you set foot on that plane. Once you return back from the plane reality hits you again and you have bills to pay and things to take care of. Traveling on vacation is just a break from the everyday bullshit of life. You also get to meet new people and experience new things.”

 

Human Character…

“As a person I am outgoing, I’m friendly, but more importantly I’m honest and I am loyal. Those are important characteristics that I look for in other people. I surround with good people because I’ve noticed that who you surround yourself with is more or less what you are or will become. If somebody is bullshitting you and there is no trust in the conversation, what are you really talking about. The people I surround myself with are people who I really trust and people who I have built strong relationships with. Honest and loyalty just mean the world to me. Unfortunately things happen and there are people I have had to cut off in my life and it is disappointing, whether it was with females or certain friends but that is just part of life.”

 

Marathon Running…

“One of my real main goals is to run the New York City Marathon sometime soon, hopefully next year. I think that is a real mind over matter type of thing to do. It kinda relates to boxing because when you run so many miles like that and have so many emotions going through your body, both mentally and physically, it is just something that I have to do next year. I’ve really got into running recently anyways.”

 

A Balanced Life…

“It’s hard being a fighter. I live a very balanced life and I like to do a lot of things. I like to go out with my friends and go to bars and clubs and meet girls and new people, but that can’t be done when you are getting ready for a fight. Basically when I am training for a fight I am in lock down. I might go watch a movie on a Friday night or something like that but after training for a few weeks the urges to go out just stop. Once I am in the gym for a few weeks all I want to do is train hard and get better. That wasn’t always the case when I was younger. I used to cut a lot of corners and I just wasn’t disciplined. I would be out drinking nights before the fight and I was only shorting myself and the people who cared about my boxing. Now I train and bust my ass in boxing and take it where it leads me.”

 

 

A Late Bloomer…

“I was forced to grow up a little fast. I’m 29 years old yet I’ve always felt that I was wise beyond my years in a lot of ways. At the same time, I am 29 years old yet I don’t feel 29 years old at all. I feel like I’ve lived many lives yet at the same time I feel like I am 20 years old. It’s almost like a contradiction in a way. I’ve just been a late bloomer in everything I’ve done in my life. When you approach the age of 30 in boxing a lot of guys start to slow down but I feel that I am getting better every week. I’m not even hitting my prime yet and that carries over to my regular life. I’ve just always been a late bloomer at everything. In some ways I felt that I’ve lived a lot but in other ways I know I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I can still do.”

 

Childhood Dream…

“First and foremost boxing is something that I have always dreamt of doing and I am really doing it. Most people in this world make compromises in their life of what they want to do. A lot of people have dreams of being a firefighter, a baseball player, or a movie star but it doesn’t always work out like that. If I accomplished nothing forward for the rest of my career in boxing at least I can say that I gave it my best shot and that I did what I always wanted to do. It was my childhood dream and my lifelong dream to do this. I have plenty of goals in boxing and I set myself small and reasonable goals. Everybody wants to be a world champion but it can’t always be like that. I set myself attainable goals as I chase my dreams.”

 

 

 

 

 

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