"These are the type of fights I need to gain experience and keep moving forward in my career. I see a stacked and talented division. I definitely see myself as one of the future world champions in the division and hopefully unified world champion in the division in the years to come. I’m just working towards that goal. Right now, I’m gaining rankings, gaining experience, and things of that nature," stated jr. middleweight Charles Conwell, who talked about his latest win, his future plans, and much more. You don't want to miss what else he had to say. Check it out!
PC: Congratulations on your win over Courtney Pennington. How do you feel about the performance?
CC: Thank you! I feel I got the job done, man. I dominated the fight and won by unanimous decision, so I did everything I had to do. Overall, there is always things I can work on to get better and get a stoppage next time.
PC: He had never been stopped before, so did you come into the fight knowing he was a durable guy?
CC: I knew he was a crafty, older guy who knew some tricks. I expected him to be able to take some shots, but I thought he would wear down at the end of the fight in some of the later rounds and I would eventually get him out of there. But he stayed strong, stayed crafty, and survived.
PC: You were coming off a 6-month layoff. Do you feel like that affected you any?
CC: I felt good in there. I didn’t feel sluggish at all. I wasn’t as comfortable as I was when I was fighting back to back. I definitely wasn’t as comfortable as I was when I was active though.
PC: Is that the goal, to get more active and stay busy?
CC: The goal is definitely to be more active. I’m 10 fights into my career and after a 6-month layoff, I want to catch up to where I need to be at and just learn. I’m trying to gain experience and fight some crafty veterans like Pennington to get me rounds and experience inside of the ring fighting those awkward style fighters and different types of styles.
PC: You were scheduled to go 8 rounds before, but you stopped your opponent early. You just fought 10 hard rounds. How did you feel?
CC: I felt good. Seeing that I could go 10 rounds and I wasn’t dead tired was like, “Okay, I can do it.” Going in, I was nervous that I would gas out, but the strength work that we put in and the conditioning showed during the fight. I didn’t get winded; I stayed aggressive and I didn’t overexert myself.
PC: Knockouts are great, but considering where you are at in your career, I’m sure getting that 30 minutes in was a great learning lesson for you.
CC: Right! That’s going to help me more in the long run. I took a lot away in this fight. It showed me that I can go the distance. Some of the things he was doing in the ring, I now know the things I can’t do when I’m fighting another crafty guy or any fighter. Just little small shit he was doing in there, like holding me and wrapping my hands up. A lot of little small crafty things he was doing, I feel like I can work on things to prevent that from happening next time and it will help me in the long run. I’m going to work on a lot of those things.
PC: The 154-pound division is loaded with talent. What do you think of the landscape of the division and is your goal to continue to make strides and improve?
CC: That’s exactly what my goal is, to make strides and gain experience, so when I do go for that title, I will make sure that I’m ready experience-wise and just know that I have been in there with every type of fighter and know that I can beat every style out there coming into a championship fight. Once you win a world championship, ain’t no looking back. There are no easy opponents when you win a world title fight. These are the type of fights I need to gain experience and keep moving forward in my career. I see a stacked and talented division. I definitely see myself as one of the future world champions in the division and hopefully unified world champion in the division in the years to come. I’m just working towards that goal. Right now, I’m gaining rankings, gaining experience, and things of that nature.
PC: What would be an ideal comeback date for you?
CC: I wanted to come back in July, but I got a small cut that needs to heal, so hopefully I can come back in early to mid-August. I can’t do anything involving contact because of the cut, but I can still go to the gym, hit the bag, do the mitts, and work on the small things that we need to work on.
PC: I appreciate the time. Good luck moving forward, my man. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
CC: I just want to thank you, Percy, for doing this interview and thank FightHype for having me on.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]