Charles Conwell Focused on Accomplishing Big Things in Career
By Thomas Gerbasi
As one of nine children, this may sound cliché, but Charles Conwell had to learn how to fight.
“I was the second youngest, so I got picked on a lot,” he said with a chuckle.
But after taking the necessary lessons from his siblings, nothing Conwell faced in the boxing ring would be quite as daunting, with the result eventually being a spot on the 2016 U.S. Olympic team and a 4-0 pro record he hopes to make 5-0 when he meets Reynaldo Trujillo in Miami, Oklahoma Friday night.
“I’d say at first I was always trying to compete with them,” he said of growing up with his family in Cleveland. “They were way bigger and older than me, but I still tried to keep up and hang with them. Now, we compete in a friendly way, but it’s more like we motivate each other, push each other and support each other since we got older.”
And now one picks on him anymore.
“Yeah, no one picks on me,” he laughs.
Of course, getting older is a relative term when it comes to Conwell, who will turn 20 in November. He’s the latest of the Baby Bombers of the 2016 Team USA squad to start making some noise in the pro game, along with 20-year-old Shakur Stevenson, 21-year-olds Nico Hernandez, Carlos Balderas and Antonio Vargas, and 22-year-old Claressa Shields, who recently won a world title in just her fourth fight.
“That did motivate me a lot to see somebody I know so close accomplish something so fast and so big,” Conwell said of Shields’ win over Nikki Adler. “She’s a two-time Olympic gold medalist, so I knew she could do it. It was just a matter of time before she got the job done.”
Despite Shields’ rapid ascension, Conwell isn’t in a rush to nab his own world title, saying, “I’m cool at the pace I’m going at.”
That pace is a fast one, though, as he has fought every month since his debut in April, scoring knockouts in each victory, with no fight going into the third round. And while he isn’t scheduled for September yet, expect to see him kept busy by his promoter, Lou DiBella, and Conwell has no problem with that.
“I don’t know if that’s the plan, but I like fighting, and I like staying active,” he said. “It keeps me in shape, and if that’s what they plan to do, I’m ready for it.”
Maybe it’s the product of growing up in a big family, but Conwell does appear to be more mature than most teenagers, and with his work ethic evident, his future has the potential to be as bright as he wants it to be.
“You gotta know what you want in life and have a good team behind you,” he said. “You want to keep your focus on what you want and how to get it. I try to keep those things on my mind at all times. Stay focused and stay sharp, not just physically, but mentally.”
And while it might not take him that long, he is well aware that by the time five years pass on his career and that of his Olympic teammates, the Class of 2016 may very well be running boxing.
“For sure, I think in five years we should all be world champions or contenders,” he said. “We should all be on top of our game then.”
Charles Conwell Focused on Accomplishing Big Things in Career - Boxing News
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