BALTIMORE (WMAR) — If you visit the Transforming Life Church of God on Baltimore's northeast side, you'll find that it looks like a typical place of worship.
However, when you walk inside the doors, hook a right at the sanctuary and make your way down the hallway, you'll see something you might not find in most churches; a boxing gym.
For nearly a decade, Time2Grind Boxing has been dedicated to teaching and cultivating the skills of young boxers and now it's home to three pro champions and an amateur fighter who's collecting some serious hardware while he climbs the ranks.
Leading the way is Coach Mack Allison Jr. and his son Mack Allison IV known to his friends and foes in the boxing world as Mack "Papi."
When we talked to him, the 26 year-old was fresh off the biggest win of his young career. He had just claimed the USA World Boxing Council Super featherweight championship. Other fighters in his camp were also seeing major success.
Malik Titus had also recently become the USA WBC Heavyweight champ. Tyrell Boyd won a title in the United States Boxing Unit to remain undefeated at 11-0 with 10 knockouts in the Super Middleweight class.
BJ Brown, one of their amateurs, who became their youngest champion at 8 years-old now holds two Silver Glove national title belts. He's only 16 and has had a dominant run in the heavyweight division.
It's a full circle moment for Coach Mack who remembers asking Pastor David Biggers of Transforming Life for a chance to run his gym at the church, with the main goal of keeping kids out of trouble.
"He’s the type of person that says don’t talk about it be about it," Coach Mack said. "That’s how he is."
Even Pastor Biggers, though, was surprised to see Coach Mack setting the gym up only a short time after their conversation.
"He came back the next week and said 'whoa..you ain’t playing,' " Coach Mack remembered.
Mack IV credits their success to his father's relentless coaching style.
"He can work two, three jobs other than this and every day he’s been in the gym it’s been the same crazy energy every day," he said.
"I came here [the] first day and like 20 minutes later I wanted to quit," BJ Brown laughed. "Because [I thought] they were crazy."
Coach Mack gets his tenacity as a trainer from the mentality he carried throughout his own career and finding out what it takes to succeed consistently.
"The more I would win, the harder I would train because my mindset was like man somebody’s training to beat me so I have to train even harder," Coach Mack said.
Now he’s giving these tools away to anyone who wants to use them, to fight their way to the top both in the ring and outside of it. He believes his fighters in the spotlight only mean more chances to be an outlet to the youth in Baltimore.
"God gave us a chance to help a lot of people," he said.
Mack IV has seen what boxing can be away from just the competition for his friends and peers he now refers to as family.
"Everybody goes through hardships in life and then we come in here and we’re able to express it in a good way and release that energy through love and the love of boxing and we got each other to get each other through it," Mack IV said.
It's why they're so adamant about keeping their program in Charm City.
"We ain't going nowhere," Coach Mack said firmly. "We’re not going to California and all these places. "We’re going to stay right here and grind."
Time 2 Grind trains boxers as young as 8 years-old and all the way up to the professional level in every weight class.
They also train people who aren't fighters who are just trying to get in good shape.
If you're interested in working out with Time2Grind contact Coach Mack by email at mallison5020@gmail.com.