The Naval Academy’s 72nd Annual Brigade Boxing Championships will be held Friday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall. This event is open to the public and admission is free.
As part of the academy’s physical education program, all midshipmen are required to participate in boxing, and boxing is also offered as a club sport at the Academy. The boxing team participates in invitational competitions in the fall and spring, as well as in ongoing intramural bouts. The Brigade Boxing Championship showcases the most elite midshipmen boxers, each performing in three-round matches within their weight class.
The boxing program at the Naval Academy started in 1865, and today the Naval Academy’s Brigade Boxing Championship generates hundreds of spectators and fans. In 1967, future Secretary of the Navy James Webb, and future Marine Corps Lt. Col., Oliver North, fought each other in the welterweight category during the competition. The event also gained national attention in 2006 when the movie “Annapolis” hit theatres.
The best boxers from the competition go on to a regional competition in order to qualify for the National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA) Championships held each spring. The USNA Boxing Team has won five National Championships with many individual All-Americans. This year, the NCBA National Championship will be held April 4 – 8 in Mashantucket, Conn.
To attend this event, visitors may walk through Gate 1 (King George Street), Gate 8 (Md. Route 450) and Gate 3 (Maryland Avenue, recommended gate) of the academy and will be required to show valid, government-issued picture identification. Vehicles without Department of Defense decals are not permitted on Naval Academy grounds. Authorized vehicles may enter through Gate 1 (King George Street) or Gate 8 (Maryland Route 450). Handicapped visitors with proper decals and identification are permitted through Gate 1 during normal business hours and may be subject to a vehicle inspection. All bags are subject to search.
For more information on Brigade boxing at the Naval Academy and this semester’s tentative boxing schedule, please visit http://www.usnaboxing.com/.
For more information about the Naval Academy, visit www.usna.edu.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
