By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – This weekend, the Bristol Sports Armory was host to the 2022 NCBA Eastern National Qualifier Boxing Tournament – sponsored by Ascension Athletics.

The event, held over March 11-13, was scheduled to host 10 different programs which included the University of Connecticut.

Right before the pandemic took hold in March of 2020, the Armory was slated to hold the National Qualifier but the week of the event, it was cancelled due to COVID.

“This was a great opportunity. We were going to do this two years ago,” said Bunty Ray, one of the owners and operators of the Bristol Sports Armory. “We were going to involve some local businesses like we did today. We had a brewery all lined up. We had some other things, like Hometown Pizza is here tonight. It was good to be able to have this venue and have local businesses come in. Just something different for people to come down to.” 

UCONN was the host team of the event as the school started up its boxing program back in 2015 under head coach Michael Campisano.

Some of the featured athletes hitting the ring for UCONN included Grace Brangwynne (119 pounds), Pin Liu (156), Josh Cronkhite (175), Danny Nieves (165) and Mike DeLuca (195).

UCONN boxing isn’t a scholarship sport, but those outstanding athletes put themselves on the line several weekends a year for the love of the sport and the qualifier from the Bristol Sports Armory was important for those athletes and the city of Bristol. 

Other programs that were scheduled for the special event from the Bristol Sports Armory included Army (West Point), Penn State, Trinity College, the University of Hartford, UMASS, Lock Haven, Shippensburg University, Kutztown University, and Norwich Academy.

A ring was put right smack in the middle of the Armoy’s hardwood floor,  and as the event started on Friday evening, the venue was filling up.

“Michael Campisano does a really good job of promoting this,” said Ray. “Obviously, he approached us. They’ve done this at the Bristol Boys & Girls Club, and they needed a different venue for different reasons. We were able to accommodate him. It was interesting to see how the ring came in and transformed the facility. For us, the turf goes down for three months and then it’s a basketball court for the rest. All of a sudden, here you go, it’s a boxing venue.”

“It has a nice feel to it at the Armory.” 

The bouts included both male and female competitors and one-hundred or so athletes were looking to advance to the NCBA National Tournament in April.

The tournament, slated from April 7-9, will take place from Charlotte, North Carolina.

But to get there, the athletes had a chance to qualify for it in Bristol as both the champion and runner-up of each weight class advanced to North Carolina.

Overall, there were 19 male and female weight classes and thirty-eight athletes qualified for the nationals in Charlotte.

Upwards of 20 matches were scheduled for each session.

The Bristol Sports Armory, a growing community center, is looking to host other such events as the facility continues to stand out among local sporting facilities.

“We did an outdoor concert over the summer,” said Ray. “We had a lot of success. We’re just going to try keep trying to do little events like this. Between all the sporting events and all the training, I think this is great for the city.” 

Located on 61 Center Street, the Armory hosts basketball leagues, sports clinics, and other events and is becoming one of the premier sports destinations in the Central Connecticut area.

“We built this place and not a whole lot of people know about it except for the people that train here and word of mouth,” said Ray. “We’re looking to just keep expanding and keep growing. I think it’s great.”

A quick note on collegiate boxing at UCONN

Boxing at UCONN, and other colleges and universities around New England is a growing sport and the Bristol Sports Armory was more than happy to be the host facility for UCONN this year.

Though boxing is a small program at UCONN, the growth of the sport is impressive.

“We have begun to build the foundation for warriors ahead of us,” according to UCONN’s Boxing Team Fanpage. “We sweat, feel pain, and taste the fruits of our labor together as we lead our dreams into reality. With our gloves we are building a legacy.