Walking up crooked, dimly lit stairs, you wonder, “Is this the right place?” There’s sheet rock, an old toilet and a discarded vent pipe in the stairwell, but no signs for Level Ground Mixed Martial Arts.

After a couple flights, you hear music and follow it. You open the door to Level Ground and step into a big, bright, welcoming gym with music pulsing from a stereo, kids readying for class and the founder’s dog, Corn Chips, roaming around like he owns the place.

From the moment you enter, it’s clear Level Ground isn’t your typical MMA gym. The nearly 7,000-square-foot space in Upham’s Corner in Dorchester is newly renovated. There’s a personal training area, a large workout room with a mat-covered floor and punching bags, a place for creating spray-paint art and a bunny lounge.

That’s right, a bunny lounge. It's a large cage with three pet bunnies.

But it’s not the bunny lounge or the spray-paint art or Corn Chips that make Level Ground truly unique. It’s the students and the mission of the nonprofit gym and its founder Ali Fuller.

Nearly 60 students train at Level Ground, and most of the students are at-risk youth from Boston’s toughest neighborhoods.

Vehari Brade, 8, tries out a punch on Fredy Melo. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Jiu-Jitsu 'Keeps Me Sane'

“I have a lot going on at home, and this is the only sport that I’ve done that’s actually been able to change my mood and emotions no matter what I’m feeling,” says Alisandra Quinones. “After class, I always feel great.”

When asked about her home life, Quinones mentions how her family spent three years in a homeless shelter and now lives in a building in Dorchester with a lot of drug activity.

“My dad is actually in jail," she adds. "He just got put in jail for four years. When I was younger, he was gone for eight ... Jiu-jitsu is kind of what keeps me sane.”

Level Ground founder Alexandra Fuller, left, trains with Alisandra Quiñones, now a three-year veteran of MMA. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Quinones learns jiu-jitsu as part of mixed martial arts training at Level Ground. MMA combines the combat techniques used in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, judo, wrestling and boxing.

At the professional level, in pay-per-view fights, MMA is unquestionably a violent sport. That raises the obvious question: Why teach it to at-risk kids, especially since many come from violent backgrounds?