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Now, as the principal at Samuel P. Massie Elementary School in Forestville, Salim’s work with up-and-coming heavyweight boxer Seth Mitchell, 25, provides a way to connect to many sports-fanatic parents. After an interview or appearance on television, Salim said he braces for a flood of phone calls.

Switching from Mitchell’s promoter to manager as the boxer moves up the ranks, Salim expects plenty more calls in the future.

People have always taken note of Salim, 55, even from his humble beginnings.

The youngest of six, Salim’s family lived and breathed boxing while growing up because of his grandfather’s and uncle’s stints in the sport. They set up neighborhood matches in their backyard, practiced punches on a bag in the basement, and eventually even persuaded a neighbor to let them open a ‘‘club” in a nearby apartment’s former laundry room.

‘‘The Kennedy’s played touch football and the Davis,’ that was my name, brought boxing gloves to every family get together,” said Salim, who changed his name when he converted to Islam in 1978. ‘‘Everybody was drawing left hooks all around the house.”

Maurice Banks, a childhood friend of Salim and mentor of Mitchell, said Salim was admired for his character and athletic ability equally in their neighborhood.

‘‘If a fight broke out or there was a disagreement Sharif and his brothers were always the stabilizing force,” Banks said. ‘‘They could walk away and not lose their dignity. In my coming up that was not seen much.”

Salim could scrap well enough that neighborhood children often asked for fighting tips on the playground. He also shined at basketball, said Banks, with neighborhood teams from around the District coming by to compete against the Davis brothers. However Salim insists books and drawing were what captivated much of his attention as a child. Rather than stay in the ring, he would watch and support his brothers. When his brother Adrian Davis started fighting internationally, Salim would be the one to prep him about the history of the cities he’d be visiting.

‘‘If he was fighting in Naples, Italy, I would be the one who looked up al the history so he would look good in the postfight interview,” Salim said.

He kept up side work as a promoter until 1995, when enough bad experiences, including broken promises and greedy partners in the business left Salim with a sour taste.

‘‘Boxing is almost like Russian roulette, you never really know,” Salim said. ‘‘The ebb and flow of boxing can wreak havoc on your personal economy.”

He managed a few fighters over the past 10 years, but only when he met Mitchell did he see a reason to get back into the game. Mitchell is now 9-0-1 with nine knockouts in 10 amateur fights. He is expected to have his first professional fight at the end of January, Salim said.

‘‘It was only for the love of Seth [I got back into promoting],” Salim said. ‘‘I know the pitfalls of boxing.”

In Mitchell, Salim said he saw an honest and dedicated fighter and someone just as committed to helping young people. Mitchell’s days are spent at Drew-Freeman Middle School in Suitland as a crisis intervention specialist.

‘‘I knew he was a good fellow because my mentor [Maurice Banks] introduced me to him,” said Mitchell of Salim. ‘‘He wouldn’t introduce me to someone who was not an honest person.”

While the anomaly of honesty in the sport got Mitchell’s attention, it was Salim’s outgoing personality and desire to win that sealed the deal.

‘‘He has a very competitive nature about him,” Mitchell said.

Salim is, after all, a boxer by birth.