During The Real Housewives of New York City season 12, one new addition is standing out above all the rest. Not Leah McSweeney. Not Elyse Slaine. Not the guy at the corn maze who Sonja Morgan wouldn't stop hitting on. No, I'm talking about Tinsley Mortimer's boxing coach, Martin Snow. He might be bad with names, but he's great at keeping it real. Hey! That can be his tagline.
Viewers met Martin the same time that Tinsley did. In the season 12 premiere, Leah introduced the two when she and Tinsley had a boxing session together. He immediately stole the scene when he told Tinsley to take off her hoop earrings. When she said, "I'm losing a little part of myself right now," he responded, "Aaaaand nobody gives a fuck."
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You might think that this would be the last we'd see of Martin, but no. He returned in episode 7, this time with Tinsley seeing him alone — not just as a boxing coach, but as an unofficial life coach. "Martin is really not easy to talk to," Tinsley says in the episode. "But he forces you to sort of fight him. You're fighting him with your fists and your fighting him with your words. He really makes me be honest with myself."
Martin and Tinsley talk about her issues with Dorinda Medley, who he calls "Dorito" and about how Tinsley is "living a life of doubt. And what's the antidote to doubt? Faith."
"You're a fucking legend," he tells her during the boxing/therapy session. "There will never be another Tinsdale." "'Cause there isn't one," she responds. "It's Tinsley." This man should be a Friend of the Housewives. Give him Elyse's confessional. We need his commentary.
But, alas, Martin is only an occasional reality TV star. The Brooklyn native's real job is owning Trinity Boxing Club in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood. The gym's website shares its colorful history that involves Martin's Irish great-grandfather first opening the gym over 100 years ago, it becoming a speakeasy during prohibition, and a long list of famous names — Al Capone, Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, among them — supposedly walking through its doors at one point or another.
In addition to owning Trinity Boxing Club in New York, Martin has also opened a Los Angeles location, and previously owned the Waterfront Boxing Club in New York's Financial District. Once a competitive boxer himself, Martin won the 1986 New York State heavyweight championship, according to an interview he did with Forbes.
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It also turns out that RHONY isn't Martin's first experience with TV. He appeared as a trainer on the second season of America's Next Top Model and Trinity Boxing Club was featured on the series Ray Donovan.
One more thing: You know how Martin was shown tossing a football to people on the street? That really is his signature move for bonding with others in the neighborhood. "If you make eye contact, and have a hand free, you are an eligible receiver," he told Tribeca Alliance Partnership.
RHONY fans in New York or LA who are interested in boxing can train at one of Martin's gyms themselves, just like Tinsley and Leah. But, for everyone else, let's just hope this wise "Irish neanderthal" keeps popping up on screen. This season needs someone to keep it grounded, and with lines like, "Where do you guys get these names from?" Martin might be Bethenny Frankel's true replacement.
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