Charles Conwell wants to ditch his “Boxing’s Best Kept Secret” nickname

Charles Conwell will talk about just about anything. Except Thanksgiving.

“I don’t even want to talk about it,” laughs the man who had to miss the holiday festivities in order to train for Saturday’s bout against Gerardo Luis Vergara. “I can’t wait for Christmas now.”

That’s the fighting life, something Ohio’s Conwell has been living for most of his 27 years. That means staying in the gym when your friends are out on the town, missing birthdays and other family events and, yeah, no turkey dinner when you have to make 154lbs the day before your fight.

At this point, though, there’s no turning back for Conwell. A 2016 United States Olympic team member, he is 20-0 (15 KOs) as a professional. He’s ranked in the top 15 at junior middleweight by three of the four major sanctioning bodies. And he has a contract with Golden Boy Promotions that he hopes will put him in a title fight sooner rather than later.

Yet Conwell changed the heading on his Instagram account to “Boxing’s Best Kept Secret” a while back, something he hopes a win over Argentina’s similarly 20-0 (13 KOs) Vergara will force him to remove altogether.

“I would say I had a lot of stops and starts in my career, especially just before I signed the Golden Boy deal,” Conwell said. “I had fights before, and then I was off for six, seven, eight months. So I think I had a lot of stops and starts, and I didn’t have a lot of consistency until now. So hopefully I can take that name out of my life real soon after this fight.”

Instead of “Best Kept Secret,” Conwell’s situation could have him in the “Biggest Mystery” category, because he’s got everything needed to be a star in the sport.

First and foremost, he can fight. Plus, he has a fan-friendly style, he knocks opponents out and he has a story and personality that people can latch on to. But it doesn’t help when you can’t find opponents willing to fight you, and that’s been part of the issue. I’d call Conwell one of the most avoided fighters out there, but you won’t hear that coming out of his mouth.

“I don’t want to say I’m avoided because I think fighters will fight anybody as long as the opportunity makes sense,” said Conwell. “Now with [boxing financier] Turki Alalshikh around, he’s making a lot of big fights. So I think there’s a lot of big fights to be made for me in the division as long as the opportunity makes sense, and I think we can get a lot of fights made now with Turki and Golden Boy and a lot of people in place. I think there are a lot of big fights for me in the future, for sure.”

Count Conwell as a glass-half-full guy, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t struggle through landing just two fights per year in 2021 and 2022, and no fights at all in 2023.

“It was rough,” he said. “You’ve got to have a lot of mental strength, and you’ve got to have a great team around you to push you and to keep you motivated. But it’s definitely tough, and it was really hard, especially when this is your main source of income. And then you’re seeing guys compete in your division and fighting and winning, and sometimes it gets frustrating, but you’ve just got to keep fighting through.”

In February, Conwell got the light at the end of the tunnel he was searching for in the form of his deal with Golden Boy Promotions. Since putting pen to paper, he’s fought twice, halting Nathaniel Gallimore and Khiary Gray. This weekend makes three, the first time he’s been this busy since 2020. And he’s happy.

“I’m definitely in a better spot now,” Conwell said. “I’m back at three fights in nine months. So yeah, I’m feeling good.”

So good that the father of two is starting to plot his road to the top and doing all those little boxing math equations that fighters on the verge of entering the title conversation do.

“I’m always looking at the landscape of the division and seeing who’s around,” Conwell said. “But it’s really hard to say who’s next. I’m just excited for whatever comes in the future. I know it’s a lot more great things and they only get better and better with time. And as long as I keep winning and keep doing good and keep knocking these dudes out and just keep beating these guys in spectacular fashion, I know it’s only going to be better and better things to come.”

Whether it’s sweeter to Conwell that he’s gotten here the right way, I don’t know, but he has to be satisfied that through the rough patches, he’s been true to himself and didn’t go down the social media rabbit hole in order to make noise.

“That’s my struggle,” Conwell said when asked if he ever wanted to see how the other half lives. “I think I’m in-between that and just wanting to be myself. I feel like sometimes I should do it more, but then I’ll be like, ‘Man, this is not my personality; I don’t know if it’s going to work for me. It’s not my personality. It’s not who I am.’ It’s kind of like a give-or-take thing. I think about it sometimes, and sometimes I don’t think about it. I get stuck in the middle sometimes, so I just don’t do nothing at all.”

Oh, he does something, all right. He trains hard, he takes care of his family, and when the bell rings, he’s there to fight. There’s a lot to be said for that, and if Conwell continues to follow that path, the “Best Kept Secret” will be a secret no longer.

“After this one,” he said, “I’m looking to change it to ‘Boxing’s Next Biggest Star.’”

Thomas Gerbasi is currently a senior writer for BoxingScene.com, Women’s Boxing columnist for The Ring magazine, a contributor to Boxing News (UK) magazine, and a member of the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 in the non-participant wing. An award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, Gerbasi is also the author of five books. His amateur boxing record was 0-1.