The world-renowned boxing trainer has never forgotten his roots—or the young people who still enter Upton Boxing looking for hope
By Doni Glover | BMORENews.com — The News Before the News
(BALTIMORE – August 19, 2026) — He is a hero in these streets.
Why?
Because the young people know he is authentic. They know he does not wish them any harm—and that means everything.
I’m talking about the young people along Historic Pennsylvania Avenue near the Avenue Market. For some, this is a part of Baltimore rarely ventured into. There is a stigma, and it has stuck.
HBO’s The Wire and The Corner were no help in the creation of a stereotype that casts Baltimore into the deepest depths of hell.
Some people do not need much of an excuse to avoid Baltimore. Those people might never discover the beauty here. They might never experience the love that many of us know is alive and well.
They see Sandtown, Upton, Penn-North and Druid Heights only through the lens of Fox 45.
Some of us who live here see another side.
We see the flowers planted along Laurens Street near Fulton Avenue. We see contractors fixing abandoned houses and transforming them into viable properties. We see young fathers walking their children to school. We see women business owners investing in the community, including those rehabbing properties along Division Street.
It is all about perspective.
And that is why Coach Calvin Ford—and I have asked him this before—refuses to leave.
“Coach,” I said, “you could live anywhere in the world. Why are you still here?”
The question is almost bizarre to him.
How could he step away from the young people who come to Upton Boxing Center looking for a piece of hope?
He is committed. He is ten toes down. He is not going anywhere.
And I love it.
What Makes a Legend?
At a meeting for 1 Baltimore, we discussed what it truly means to be a legend.
A legend has to give back.
Fame does not make a person a legend. Money does not make a person a legend. Television appearances and championship belts do not automatically make someone a legend.
A legend uses whatever success he or she has achieved to reach back and lift somebody else.
I have said before that there are legends, and then there are champions.
Muhammad Ali was a champion in the fullest sense of the word. So was Pelé. Their greatness extended far beyond athletic competition. They loved the people, stood with the people, and gave something of themselves to the people.
And the people could feel that love.
Coach Calvin Ford belongs in that conversation.
Helping guide Gervonta “Tank” Davis from this same West Baltimore to boxing’s world stage made Ford internationally recognized. Remaining on Pennsylvania Avenue to train, protect, and encourage another generation of Baltimore children is what makes him a legend.
Upton Boxing is four blocks from my house. I go there often.
If I cannot catch Coach Calvin on television working the corner of a major fight, I can catch him around the way at Upton Boxing.
That is the beauty of Coach Calvin.
He can stand on the world stage without ever forgetting his roots.
A Family Gym, Not a Regular Gym
I once walked with Coach Ford from Upton Boxing around the corner to Legends.
Along the way, people stopped him. Young people on the block lit up when they saw him coming.
“The youngins got mad love for you,” I told him.
“Yeah, but they know I’m real,” he said. “I’m going to be truthful with them.”
I have seen grown men along the avenue who respect what Coach Calvin is doing. There is a reason for that.
He is not trying to hurt anyone, and the young people know it. They come around him because they feel safe.
We stood near Pennsylvania and Robert streets, one block from Pennsylvania and Laurens, where, as Coach put it, “all hell can break loose at any time.”
He told me about watching a contractor arrive to perform work along the avenue but refuse to get out of his truck. The man attempted to measure the sidewalk from inside the vehicle rather than step onto Pennsylvania Avenue.
That is the mindset some outsiders bring into this community.
They do not know that some of the most loving people in the world live right here.
That is the tension Coach Calvin lives with every day: a neighborhood carrying a national reputation it did not choose and a boxing gym within that neighborhood producing champions.
“We’re right here in the heart of West Baltimore on Historic Pennsylvania Avenue,” I told him. “There’s a stigma—The Wire and all of that. But we know that out of this concrete jungle has come a world champion.”
That champion is Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Coach Calvin began training Tank when he was seven years old. Alongside his longtime coaching partner, Kenny Ellis, Ford helped develop a young Baltimore boxer into a champion recognized around the world.
Yet the cameras, arenas and championship nights tell only part of Coach Calvin Ford’s story.
The rest of the story can be found inside Upton Boxing on an ordinary afternoon.
The Young People Are the Point
During our interview, young people began entering Coach Calvin’s office one by one.
By the time we finished, the room included youth boxers, coaches, parents, Coach Kenny Ellis, and Coach Ford’s business partner, Mr. Al.
The interview itself became a demonstration of Upton Boxing’s community mission.
Inside this gym, boxing is the hook. Developing young lives is the point.
First came Kyle, a young boxer competing around 125 pounds.
Coach Calvin immediately directed the conversation toward Kyle’s education. The young man proudly shared that he had been accepted into an early-college preparatory program and had made the honor roll.
“Academics first before sports,” Kyle said.
Coach Calvin lit up.
“See, that’s the stuff people don’t know about,” Ford said. “It’s not the fight. It’s the things that get them to where they need to be.”
Kyle said mathematics is his favorite subject. He is considering professional boxing, but he is also thinking about college.
I told him that he could do both.
That exchange revealed the part of Upton Boxing the television cameras do not always capture.
“This is what we do at Upton,” Ford explained. “It’s not about the boxing. It’s about life. The boxing is a tool.”
That statement says it all.
Heavy Hitter Hannah
Then came Hannah.
She entered the room full of confidence, energy, and personality.
Hannah began boxing after experiencing bullying at school. Today, she says bullying is no longer a problem.
“I don’t really have problems with nobody,” she said. “I don’t start stuff.”
Around the gym, she has collected several nicknames, including “Heavy Hitter Hannah,” “Triple H” and “Hammer Hands.”
Hannah represents a new generation of girls finding confidence, discipline and belonging through boxing.
She spoke about watching boxing with her father, who also boxed and was around Tank Davis. That makes Hannah a second-generation fighter connected to Upton Boxing.
She recommends the gym to other young people, especially younger children who need guidance and encouragement.
Hannah is also thinking about college. She mentioned Towson University as one possibility, but she is also considering studying abroad.
Wherever she goes, Upton Boxing will be part of her foundation.
When I asked whether Coach Calvin was a good coach, Hannah did not hesitate.
“He’s amazing,” she said.
Showtime
Next came Tanner Johnson, a sixth grader better known around the gym as “Showtime.”
Tanner is a southpaw who dreams of becoming a professional boxer. He idolizes Tank Davis, and Coach Calvin said he sometimes sees flashes of the Baltimore champion in the young fighter.
But Coach Calvin’s responsibility is not merely to encourage Tanner’s dream. It is to help him understand the discipline, preparation and life decisions required to pursue it.
Ford reflected on lessons learned while helping Tank develop. His goal is to give Tanner and the other young fighters every tool possible.
“The things that I didn’t do with Tank, we make sure we do it with him,” Ford said of Tanner. “So he can understand certain things in life.”
Coach Calvin also spoke about Mike Tyson’s life and wondered how some of Tyson’s experiences might have unfolded differently had his mentor and trainer, Cus D’Amato, lived longer.
“We try to make sure we put all the tools there for them,” Ford said, “so they don’t have the mistakes that came before them.”
I told Tanner that if he ever decided to pursue college, I would help him.
A young person should not have to choose between a dream and an education. The adults surrounding him should help him develop both.
There was another lad in the room, Milo. He appeared to be only five years old. While he did not have much to say, he said he liked boxing.
They did not need to say much.
Their presence told the story.
They were somewhere safe. They were surrounded by adults who knew their names, recognized their potential and expected something positive from them.
“It’s a family-built gym,” Ford said. “It’s not a regular gym. It’s a family gym.”
The New Addition to the Family
Chrisean Rock is among the newest fighters to enter the Upton Boxing family.
Coach Calvin understands that developing a professional fighter requires more than teaching combinations, footwork and defense. It also means helping that fighter manage the attention, pressure and personal challenges that come with a public career.
Ford spoke protectively of Rock.
He was not pretending that development is always pretty. He was speaking as a coach concerned about her safety, her future and the lessons she must learn to reach the next level.
He also understands that young people and young adults will make mistakes.
None of us is perfect.
A good coach does not abandon a fighter at the first sign of trouble. A good coach corrects, teaches, protects, and continues pushing that person toward something greater.
That is how Coach Calvin approaches his fighters—not merely as athletic talent, but as human beings still becoming who they are meant to be.
The Real Truth
Before I left, I asked Coach Ford what “the real truth” about this city looked like to him.
“This was a blue-collar town,” he said.
He remembered Bethlehem Steel and the Black men he saw as a child carrying brown paper lunch bags as they went to work.
Those jobs allowed people to provide for their families and gave communities an economic foundation.
Many of those jobs are now gone.
Coach Calvin sees the fallout every day in the lives of the young people who enter his gym. That makes Upton Boxing’s mission about something larger than sports.
The gym provides structure where structure may be missing. It provides discipline, family, accountability and hope.
Coach Calvin has trained world-class fighters and appeared on international television. He has experienced the bright lights, championship arenas and enormous pressure that accompany elite professional boxing.
Still, he answers the telephone.
He remains accessible.
He returns to the same community that produced him.
The truth is, he never left.
The Hope Is Real
As our interview concluded, I asked Coach Calvin to imagine that I was a boxer entering the 12th round of a championship fight.
This was the title fight. I was tired, but he knew I still had something left inside me.
How would he pull it out? What would he tell me?
“I’ve got to find something that I’ve been around you that’s going to dig deep inside of you,” he said.
Then Coach Calvin gave me the message he has given to so many others.
“The hope is real,” he said. “You’ve just got to believe in the process.”
Good enough for me, Coach.
Coach Calvin Ford has already reached the world stage in boxing. Yet he remains right here on Historic Pennsylvania Avenue, pouring what he knows into the next Kyle, Hannah, Tanner—or Tank.
On television, we see him develop fighters.
At Upton Boxing, we see him develop lives.
A legend has to give back.
Coach Calvin Ford gives back every day.
That is why he is a Legend of Baltimore: Beyond the Game.
Keep watching BMORENews.com—The News Before the News, where we uncover the truth.
