After time in prison and children’s deaths, Quinton Randall fights on with hope

Boxer Quinton Randall has endured more heartache and loss in 30 years of life than most people experience in a lifetime, yet he continues to fight on. 

Boxing is a sport that attracts a special type of person. It’s grounded in a working-class lifestyle and is often a person’s ticket out of desperate circumstances. In that sense, Quinton Randall is cut from the same cloth as most boxers, but his journey is unique and a tale filled with sorrow but with a lesson in faith and fortitude.

Randall’s troubled adolescence and early adulthood growing up in a project in Houston, Texas, led to prison at the age of 18 years old. Years of problems with the law caught up with Randall, who found himself doing a three-year stint all served while on 23-hour lockdown. That’s approximately 25,185 hours of solitude to think and reflect or go mad. Randall found the internal strength to fight through his circumstances and productively use his time.

“And at first, it was extremely hard for me,” Randall told FanSided about his time in prison.

“So reading helped me get through, looking at my son’s pictures, and then I just told myself day in, and day out, when I leave here, I’m going straight to the gym, and I’m never looking back,” continued Randall. “And the first week I was out, I went to the gym, and I never looked back.”

Randall had two remedies for the soul, boxing and his son Quenell.

Randall was fascinated by boxing for a while. He dabbled in the sport at the age of 13 but fantasized about it and practiced while in prison. Articles in The Ring Magazine authored by Bernard Hopkins, served as his boxing instructor.

“But when I was there [in prison] the first two years, we was able to get Ring magazines,” recalled Randall. “So that’s how I kept up with the boxing and everything that was going on, where at the end of the magazine, B-Hop would be back there showing you tips on how to go to jab or how to throw a straight right.

“And so I’m in a six-by-nine cell by myself. So it was completely locked down. So we couldn’t leave this cell at all. There was no leaving. So I would use my mattress. I would like, roll my mattress up the best way I could and use a sheet to tie and keep it locked. I would hang it on my bunk, and I would use it as my punching bag.”

When Randall left prison at the age of 21, he stayed true to his word and started training at a boxing gym. It would be nice to put a bow on Randall’s story and say that life went on without a hitch as he climbed the boxing rankings, but life isn’t that simple.

Randall trained and fought as an amateur boxer for years while working numerous jobs, including as a chef for Top Golf and Benihana. In 2014 Randall was expecting a second child, but his daughter passed away at birth.

“She [Randall’s girlfriend] had to go on to induce labor, and before we went, we didn’t know, her mom didn’t know that the umbilical cord got hanging around the neck,” said Randall. “So, by the time we realized it, it was just too late.”

Randall was heartbroken as any parent would be, so he relied on his son and boxing to keep him going. He pursued his dreams and won the 2016 USA Boxing National Championships. At the height of Randall’s joy as an amateur boxer, tragedy struck again.

Quinton Randall has a rare strength of spirit that has survived tremendous loss

One month after winning nationals, Randall’s son died in a tragic car accident. He was only 8 years old.

On January 10, 2017, Randall spoke to his son on Facetime, and later, Randall received a call from Quenell’s mother saying she ran out of gas. Randall was leaving his house to pick them up when he received another phone call.

“It was probably like less than two minutes later,” recounted Randall. “She called me up hysterically crying.”

Quenell’s mother told Randall that they had been in an accident, and Quenell wasn’t responding. Randall got to the scene of the accident shortly after. His son was pinned in the back of the car. First responders had to use the Jaws of Life to remove Quenell from the wreckage. Sadly, he passed away shortly after from brain trauma.

After losing his second child, devastation, anguish, and pain filled Randall. The thought of taking his own life flashed through his mind, but his faith and the promise of seeing his children again in the afterlife kept Randall from self-harm.

“I knew for a fact that if I took my own life, that I would never see my son in the next life,” said Randall. “So that kept me from doing that.

“It was hard to find motivation to keep going when that was all your motivation right there. But as I got to sit and meditate and find reasons how to keep going, to find my ‘why,’ it came together. So that’s the reason why I’m still here.”

Randall used boxing as his therapy, and it offered a sanctuary from the pain of life. Over time, Randall grew to accept all of the trauma and loss. He forged forward with his boxing career, knowing that his children are in heaven watching.

Today, Randall is 6-0 with two knockouts as a professional boxer. He fights Jan Carlos Rivera (4-0, 4 KOs) on the Oct. 17 undercard of the Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. Teofimo Lopez main event. He’s rated by Boxrec.com as a top-100 super welterweight in the world, and he plans to move up the rankings quickly as a welterweight going forward.

A person with a weaker constitution might not have made it through the hardships that have befallen Randall, but Randall is a fighter in the ring and out. He hopes that his story can help inspire others to battle through their misfortunes.

“I want to be a symbol of hope for people who’ve been in situations like me, that have been through what I’ve been through,” said Randall. “If I can do it, you can do it.”

Watch Quinton Randall fight Jan Carlos Rivera on the undercard of  Lomachenko vs. Lopez on Saturday, Oct. 17. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+.