When you look at the mint-green house on the corner of Clinton Avenue in the Edison neighborhood, it doesn’t particularly stand out. When you walk down the backstairs and into the basement, that’s when you realize this house is different.
There are no boxes of old clothes or memorabilia in this basement; instead, mats line the floor and punching bags hang from the ceiling. The back wall is filled with pictures and hung gloves.
There’s no doubt about it: This basement is a boxing gym.
ChampsDen Boxing Club was created in 2019 by Kalamazoo native Jadschi Green, but that’s not where his boxing journey started.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooAimua Osuki, 13, right, trains under the steady gaze of Coach Ja, left. Osuki was 6 when his parents emigrated from Nigeria to Lansing, MI. They moved again to Kalamazoo when he was 8. He is one of the newest arrivals at ChampsDen.He recalls “seeing my two older brothers fight, and I said, ‘You know what? I can do that.’ So, I walked up to the coach and said, ‘Hey, I’ll be in the gym on Monday.’”
Boxing is in his blood. His father was a boxer and so were his two older brothers. Watching his brother fight that day in 1992, he knew it was his turn to get into the ring. He started training on a Monday, he was sparring by Wednesday, and his first fight was that Saturday. He won – and the wins didn’t stop there.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooCoach Ja in his backyard, after guiding his five attendees through a jump rope routine in the 90-degree heat on a late summer day, remains stoic and fortifying. Green won the 1992 Junior Olympics Championship, the 1994 Silver Gloves State Championship, and made history in 1995 with his family: He and his brothers were the first three brothers to ever win Gold Gloves state championships in the same tournament. Green turned pro in 2000 at 22 in New Jersey, less than eight years after he started.
I push through
In 2015, Green took a major hit outside the ring. At just 37 years old, he survived a stroke.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooDahira Valadez warms up on a speedbag before training.“The doctors said I would never fight again, so don’t even think about it. But they gave me the clearance to start running again,” he says. “I started running and getting back in shape.”
Green was determined to fight again and to prove his doctors wrong.
“I found a coach that looked up to me in the amateurs, and he says, ‘It would be an honor for me to train you.’”
In 2017 he fought his first fight post-stroke, and lost.
“I lost, but my goal was to get back into the ring,” Green says. “I push through.”
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazoo“He’s a good dude,” says 14-year-old Dahira Valadez. “He always makes time even when he has work. He’s a good person.” It’s that mentality that Green wants to bring to the kids at his gym.
“He’s a good dude,” says 14-year-old Dahira Valadez. “He always makes time even when he has work. He’s a good person.”
She’s been going to the gym since 2023 with the goal of getting at least one fight in and winning the Silver Gloves. She believes with Green as her coach, she can get there. “It’s a good place and good people to be around,” she says. “It’s very motivational.”
That’s the same reason Israel McCurtis, 24, trains at the gym.
“You can go somewhere and they take your money, but train you improperly,” McCurtis says. Green “trains you for free and tells you the right way, because he was a professional.”
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooAlexander Lopez says, “I trust Coach Ja’s ability to train. I saw how one of his fighters came out (into the ring). Like a champion.”Green only charges for personal one-on-one training sessions, not his daily group training sessions.
“In K'zoo, there’s a lot of stuff you can get into,” and not the good kind. “So for young people this is a good outlet and it provides a safe space for them to go if you don’t have that outlet,” McCurtis says.
When he’s training, he can focus, he says.
“My goal was to get a couple fights and see how far I can go,” he says.
Building up champions, inside and outside the ring
McCurtis’ dream is to make the 2028 Olympics. He simply looks around the gym when he needs a push.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooAlexander Lopez, 17, Kalamazoo, squares up with a punching bag at Champ’s Den. “I have been training here for about 3 or 4 months, and I’ve been training as a boxer for almost 2 years. I trust Coach Ja’s ability to train."“I look at the wall, it’s motivation,” he says. That wall is filled with pictures from Green’s professional career and photos of boxing greats.
“A lot of these kids go to school and don’t get involved with sports because there’s no interest there, but I want them to come here and find that,” Green says. “It’s a safe space for them. Even if they don’t like boxing, they can come here, work out, chill out.”
Which is why it’s free to train there, a crucial selling point to local kids.
“Boxing can be very pricey, with equipment,” Valadez says.
Green’s main goal isn’t making money. Instead, he is focused on how to “build these champions up, inside and outside the ring,” he says.
Green opened the gym at the end of 2019, registered with USA Boxing in 2020, and in 2021 it officially became a nonprofit. The gym is mainly funded by Green. He typically works a 12-hour shift at his local factory job, then trains Monday through Thursday with the kids starting at 6 p.m.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooTrisha Eid, 42, (left) practices throwing combinations with Coach Ja on Aug. 11, 2025. Eid moved from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo a year ago in order to train at ChampsDen.“It’s a lot on your body, I won’t lie,” McCurtis joked.
Green emphasizes strength and conditioning which includes running, Valadez’s least favorite workout.
“I really hate it, but I have to get up and do it for durability,” she says. “You can gas out in the second round if you haven’t been conditioning.”
Valadez has been forcing herself to run, even when she’s not at the gym.
“You have to practice when no one is watching,” she says. She is often one of only a few females at the gym.
“I have to show them, I can be as good as the guys,” she says, laughing.
Motivation is no laughing matter for Green.
“I love it,” he said. “You have to love it. I don’t think anyone wakes up and says, ’I want to punched in the face.’”
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooIsrael McCurtis, 24, Kalamazoo, composes himself before a two-hour conditioning session at Champs Den. “I try to get better each time. I be hard on myself. Keep practicing. Keep practicing. I am just trying to be somebody. To take care of my family."His love for his community and these kids is what keeps him going.
“If I stop, that means I’m giving up on these kids,” he says. “What would they do and where would they go?”
His inspiration is contagious. “No matter what, there’s always going to be something, so don’t let that stop you from getting to where you’re going,” McCurtis says.
Green is hoping to take local boxing far.
“I want to be the new and improved KBA,” he says, referring to Kalamazoo Boxing Academy, which had a big impact in local boxing in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooCoach Ja says, “My main goal…well, I had the light on me throughout my boxing career. Now that light should be on them.“I hope I impact the youth and the community,” he says. “I want these people to find change.”
Change is all he sees when he looks at his gym, which initially started with a light and one, white punching bag, and a reflex bag.
“It looked like a dungeon,” Green says, “but as time went on, people started hearing about it and donating money and equipment.”
Today, it looks like a real boxing gym.
“I started with two kids,” he says. “Two turned into four, four turned into six. I think the most I had down here was 13. To see how far it came to now, it’s like, 'Wow.' Now, I think it’s time for us to get a building.”
This story is part of Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative’s coverage of equitable community development. SWMJC is a group of 12 regional organizations dedicated to strengthening local journalism. Visit swmichjournalism.com to learn more.
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Zac Clark / NowKalamazooChampsDen Boxing Club in Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood is a tiny training space tucked away in the basement of a mint-green house on Clinton Avenue.