The last time I checked in with Charles Conwell in July of 2018, we talked about him becoming the new King of Cleveland sports. He was all-in on that idea.
Almost two years later, a lot has changed in the world of the 22-year-old and the world itself, for that matter. Of course, if we’re talking boxing, Conwell is still hoping to represent his city in the best way possible.
“This pandemic made it slow down, but I feel like I'm still emerging as one of the Kings of Cleveland, for sure,” he said. “This happening now, people lost focus because of the pandemic and my inactivity. It's like every time you get momentum going, you gotta start all over again.”
Conwell was supposed to fight on April 10 in a Showtime-televised event in Nebraska before COVID-19 put boxing on pause. I spoke to him the day before that fight, asking him if he was happy he could eat instead of making weight.
“I'm happy I can eat, but I would be happier if I had a fight tomorrow,” he said, admitting that on fight night, he would “probably be somewhere watching TV or playing a game” instead of seeking his 13th pro win.
“The crazy part is, I was already in training camp and then the fight got canceled,” he said. “Maybe if the fight got canceled before training camp, I would never been as mad, but I can't really be that mad because it's a pandemic. I can't really be mad at one certain person or anything.”
Even fighting in front of an empty house would have been preferable to sitting at home for the unbeaten junior middleweight, who has been living this life since the age of ten. So seeing a fight fall by the wayside through no fault of anyone is hard to accept.
“Putting in all that training, you still want to at least fight,” he said. “It doesn't matter if anyone is there as long as you fight. And it still would have been on TV, so it wouldn't have been something where no one could see it. So yeah, I'm fine with fighting without a crowd. As long as it's on TV. I don't want to fight in front of no crowd and no TV. (Laughs) As long as it's on TV, it's okay.”
At this point in the conversation, Conwell is like any other fighter living in this new reality. He wants to fight, he wants to make a living, he wants to perform and move closer to his dream of becoming a world champion. But he can’t. Not now at least.
“The gyms in Cleveland are closed,” he said. “You need to go outside and run or do a treadmill run. But we're still training, doing jump rope and running, shadowboxing and things like that. We can't get no boxing gym type work in Cleveland. But other than that, we can still get running and cardio in.”
All the fun stuff, then?
“Right,” he laughs.
There are the occasional trips to Toledo and the Soul City Boxing Gym that’s a home away from home, though, and that helps keep his mind on his craft and his passion.
“When we're in Toledo, if there's no boxing, there's still boxing,” Conwell said. “We're always watching old boxing matches, studying boxing, still talking about boxing. It keeps your mind still focused on it when you're not in the gym.”
Again, Conwell sounds just like any other boxer. And there’s no better sound, considering everything he’s dealt with since the night of October 12, 2019, when the former U.S. Olympian stopped Patrick Day in the tenth round of their bout in Chicago. Day died from injuries sustained in the bout, and it not only devastated Day’s family and team, as well as the entire boxing community, but Conwell too.
The consensus following Day’s death was that while this was something no fighter deserved, the universally liked Day really didn’t deserve this to be his final moment on Earth. Yet the same could be said for Conwell. He’s a quality young man, and while no fighter should have to deal with such a tragedy, you really feel for him even more.
There were sleepless nights, thoughts of quitting the sport, and a desire to be away from something he loved that got tainted, if only for enough time to clear his head.
Friends and family were there for him but also gave him his space. There were suggestions for him to reach out to fighters who had been in similar situations, but he wasn’t ready to relive that night in Chicago again.
“A lot of people told me I should have reached out to Boom Boom Mancini, but I never did,” Conwell said of his fellow Ohioan, who lived through the aftermath of the death of Duk Koo Kim after their 1982 bout. “I was in a place where I really didn't want to talk to anyone. I was just in my own zone. I didn't want to talk to anyone at that time.”
Eventually, Conwell began to come back to the sport. He requested a fight and he got one, halting Ramses Agaton in four rounds in February. He was home.
“It felt good to be back in the ring,” said Conwell. “I got my mind back right, and it felt good to do what I've always been doing and do what I love and not have to worry about any outside distractions. Boxing keeps me zoned in and tuned in and it keeps me busy and keeps my mind focused and sharp.”
And he’s back. He’s never going to be like all the other boxers, but he will get to write his own story as he takes his own path through the sport. And out of the darkness of the last several months came light when he and his girlfriend, Shaquona Pearsall, found out that they’re going to be the parents of a baby girl in June.
Conwell beams when he talks about the arrival of his daughter and how that’s changed his outlook on life.
“It makes you want to work hard and leave something behind for the kid, too,” he said. “You want to leave a legacy for the kid to look at and see. It gives me an extra push and motivation because I've got someone looking up to me and someone that I'll look after.”
Will that someone ever put the gloves on?
“To be honest, I really don't want her to box,” he laughs.
That’s a dad talking, especially one who knows that for every high in this sport, there can often be crippling lows. And no father wants that for his child. It already shows just what kind of man Charles Conwell is, though we didn’t need to hear his thoughts on his daughter to know that. We’ve already seen his character. Now he just wants us to see him fight some more.
“I really wanted it to be a real big year for me, a breakout year, but because of the coronavirus, it probably pushed it back a few months,” he said of his plans for the rest of 2020. “I want to get back on schedule to where I was supposed to be and have big fights and put myself on the map even more.”
Spoken like a true King of Cleveland.