SEEN Community Changemaker Khali Sweeney Built a Boxing Gym with a Bigger Mission

Photography by Darrel Ellis

Khali Sweeney had heard it so many times, he truly believed it: If he didn't turn his life around, he'd be dead or incarcerated by age 21. 

It was a narrative he came to accept — and even prepare for. Believing an early death was inevitable, he took all kinds of risks. He also constantly worked out in case he ended up incarcerated. The goal, Sweeney says, was to be the "strongest, fastest person in the prison yard."

As he got older, Sweeney, who grew up in a rough neighborhood on Detroit’s east side, wondered what was taking so long to meet the fate everyone predicted. He frequently thought about what it would feel like to be shot and why he hadn't been arrested yet. 

Then, when he was in his 20s, an uncomfortable encounter led to an unexpected change. Forcing Sweeney to carefully examine a photograph, a relative said, “Here's all your friends, and here's all my friends. I can go and talk to every one of my friends right now.”

By contrast, each of Sweeney’s friends was either dead, in prison, or on a “most wanted” list. “I'm telling you, man, get out of that neighborhood,” the relative told him.

Sweeney, now 53, recalls asking his relative to mind his own business. But when he went home, he thought about the conversation and seriously considered what he wanted to do with his life. The honest answer, he says, was to learn how to read. 

“I wasn't scared to die. The only thing that made me shake and shiver was if I thought somebody was gonna find out I couldn't read,” says Sweeney, who dropped out of school in 11th grade. Before that, he kept his illiteracy a secret by creating disturbances in class when called on to read. 

After the conversation, Sweeney enrolled in an adult education program and learned to read. His new skill put him on the trajectory to making a difference in the lives of hundreds of Detroit youth years later when he founded the Downtown Boxing Gym, a highly sought-after out-of-school academic and athletic program a short drive from his childhood home.

DBG “became my job, my passion. This became my life,” he says. “I set out to rewrite that old, false narrative, and let students in our community know they can achieve anything they set out to do.”

Around the same time Sweeney was learning to read, he was honing his boxing skills. Since there were no gyms in his neighborhood, he and his cousins would meet outside of a General Motors plant to shadowbox, work on boxing drills, and run around the expansive building.

His curious routine caught the attention of the neighborhood kids. They asked what he was doing, and, in turn, Sweeney asked about their grade points, goals, and how they planned to achieve them. The interactions usually ended with Sweeney offering some guidance. He also taught them how to box. 

“When I disguised the message in some play, with some joking, they were receptive,” Sweeney says. “Boxing was just the icebreaker to the bigger conversation.”

That concept led Sweeney to start the Downtown Boxing Gym in a former car wash on Detroit’s east side in 2007. Four years later, he turned it into a nonprofit. Today, DBG occupies a 27,500-square-foot facility on Vernor Highway and offers students ages 8-18 free academic and athletic opportunities, as well as continuing mentorship and support through age 25. Its waiting list exceeds 1,500.

DeShawn is one of more than 300 students who have benefited from Sweeney's guidance and wisdom. He was in sixth grade and involved with gangs when he met Sweeney. DeShawn’s last name and the other students’ last names are withheld for privacy reasons.

"Khali saw me running from school one day. First time, I think, seeing somebody who cared," DeShawn says in a story for the DBG website. "When I got to the gym, [Khali] sat down and talked to me. He told me why school is important and why I should be in school every day instead of running the streets."

DeShawn graduated from high school in 2023 with a 4.3 GPA and plans to pursue a career in aerospace engineering. 

Mawrese, a 17-year-old participant, calls Sweeney a role model "because we both came from nothing, and now, he's a major person in metro Detroit, and I want to be like that." 

It's more than Sweeney's relatable experiences, motivation, and commitment to the children and teens of Detroit that drives DBG. It's also his dedication to the organization’s students, parents, and staff.

Deflecting praise, he says, "We have a great team of people, a great team of supporters, and a great group of families and kids supporting us.”

Meredith Potter, the development associate with DBG, recalls one of her first interactions with Sweeney. At the time, her mother-in-law was dying, and she was visibly upset at work. When her new boss learned what was wrong, he told her to get in his car so he could drive her to see her mother-in-law before she died.

“I had to tell him no — she lives eight hours away,” Potter remembers. “But his first instinct was, ‘Let's make this happen,’ and he barely knew me.”

Sweeney has been honored as a Top 10 CNN hero, a recipient of a governor's service award, and a part of a Detroit Historical Museum exhibit recognizing unsung entrepreneurs.

And still, Sweeney isn't ready to call DBG successful because he hasn’t reached its goal of “helping as many people as humanly possible.” As long as DBG has a waiting list, he says, the organization will fall short of its aim.

Those who know Sweeney believe he can accomplish his objective. DBG is already expanding to a neighboring property that will house a state-of-the-art science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) lab and provide space to accommodate an additional 300 students.

“I don't think I've ever met anyone who is so certain about what needs to happen and the direction something needs to go,” Potter says. “It's never a question of, ‘Should we do this? Is this right? Is this wrong?’ He knows if it's right or wrong, and if it's right, it's what we're going to do. He'll find a way to make it happen.”

Read more about Downtown Boxing Gym and the incredible work they do here.