BRIDGEPORT — This could be something huge. Huge for the city. Huge for continuing to sell the positive vibe that we're not just an urban negative but a place filled with positives.

USA Boxing wants to come here. It wants to build a training facility here and host fight cards at the Arena at Harbor Yard, like Friday night's exhibition against Brazil and China that will feature a half-dozen U.S. Olympic boxers. If this first exhibition is a success, then USA Boxing is ready and willing to do this annually.

Wow. Picture that, USA Boxing hosting a major fight card in our city every year.

Apparently, a lot of people can.

People such as USA Boxing CEO Jim Millman, who has been looking to the east from his base in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the last year or so, thinking about how great it would be to have a facility out here. A place close to the New York media market. An area where boxing lives and has thrived for a long, long time.

"One of the first observations when I came on board (as CEO) was that Colorado Springs was great because of its connection to the Olympic committee, but it doesn't give us any kind of face or presence in the East at all, where there's so much interest in boxing," Millman said recently. "So the process started with conversations with roughly six or seven different states and cities in the East, not all in Connecticut, all up and down the coast. And frankly, what happened was that this state in particular showed more interest than

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anywhere."

And Bridgeport, in particular, showed more interest than any other state city.

That sparked Millman to call the people at the Arena and offer a shot to host an Olympic boxing preview. It didn't matter that executive director Lynn Carlotto had less than a month to work everything out. The Arena made it work.

"As it turns out, one of our advisors had a very good experience here promoting the Travis Simms pro event (last July) and he recommended that we look at this (arena)," Millman said. "The (Connecticut) Speaker (of the House Jim Amman) was enthused about Bridgeport, so this was kind of the first opportunity out of the box to do something here, and we decided it was a really good facility for it."

The Travis Simms fight drew over 6,000 to the Arena, and USA Boxing is expecting a similar crowd Friday night. That, more than anything, will show the city's commitment.

Not that it hasn't shown it already.

"When you look at the community organizations that are enthused about helping kids, the Police Athletic League, the mayor's office, the recreation department, we've had stronger initial interest here than we've had anywhere," Millman said of Bridgeport. "So when you're an organization like ours, one of the things you look for is passionate support. And when you get people that want to get involved, it moves the city to the head of the list on some of these programs."

In addition to the training facility, USA Boxing would offer other programs designed to help inner-city kids, such as its "Gloves not Guns," which Millman says works to get kids off the streets and into the gyms.

"I think that there's no question that a number of our programs have a great fit here," he said.

If all goes well in the state Legislature over the next 48 hours — a bill is pending before the House that would give USA Boxing $1.5 million to help build the facility — the city could soon have the sweet choice of determining the site of the project. One area being considered is the North End Boys and Girls Club on Madison Avenue.

"The training complex is just one piece. One critical time period is coming up when the legislative session ends (Thursday). From a state standpoint, we'd like to have our government approvals signed off by then," Millman said. "Then, we don't have a real specific requirement on timing otherwise. With the training center, there's a couple of different ways to go. One is to link with an existing facility and put our name on it and add more of a boxing facility to it. The second option is to build from the ground up, which would obviously have a different timeline and some different elements.

"We're not set on having to build from nothing, and I would say that by the end of May we would have a very clear idea of how we're going to go with the training facility. I think having our social programs anchored here makes a lot of sense and having this arena as a site annually for big events really makes sense. We're already talking about possible countries for (another boxing exhibition) next year."

Hopefully those fighters will be training in a new boxing facility right here in Bridgeport. Contact Chris Elsberry at celsberry@ctpost.com

Boxing card

USA Boxing Olympic Invitational Rosters

UNITED STATES
106-Luis Yanez, Duncanville, Texas (2008 Olympian)119 - David Clark, San Diego, Calif.
125-Gary Russell Jr., Capitol Heights, Md. (2008 Olympian)
132-Sadam Ali, Brooklyn, N.Y. (2008 Olympian)
141-Javier Molina, Commerce, Calif., (2008 Olympian)
152-Demetrius Andrade, Providence, R.I., (2008 Olympian)
178-Lionell Thompson, Buffalo, N.Y.
201-Deontay Wilder, Tuscaloosa, Ala., (2008 Olympian)
201-plus-Trevor Bryan, Albany, N.Y.

CHINA
141-Qiong Maimaitituersun (2008 Olympian)
152-Silamu Hanati (2008 Olympian)
201-Abulikemu Abudurehemen
201-plus-Yushan Nijiati (2008 Olympian)

BRAZIL
106-Paulo Caravalho (2008 Olympian)
119-Robenilson Jesus (2008 Olympian)
125-Robson Conceicao (2008 Olympian)
132-Everton Lopes (2008 Olympian)
178-Washington Silva (2008 Olympian)

NATIONAL FEATURE BOUT
165-Shawn Porter, Stow, Ohio, vs. Luis Arias, Milwaukee