CHARLES CONWELL calmly, consistently showed Gerardo Vergara on Saturday night that there are levels to this.
The undefeated junior middleweight contender picked apart the previously undefeated Argentinean until he hurt and stopped him late in the seventh round of their 10-round co-feature before welterweights Alexis Rocha and Raul Curiel fought in a 12-round main event at Toyota Center in Ontario, California. Conwell caught Vergara with a left uppercut toward the end of the seventh round and quickly followed up with a left hook that buzzed Vergara and encouraged Conwell to finish him off.
The sharper, stronger Conwell then landed a barrage of power punches on a vulnerable Vergara, including six straight left hooks that rendered him defenseless. Referee Thomas Taylor understandably stepped between them and stopped their bout at 2:51 of the seventh round.
Cleveland’s Conwell, who fought for the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, improved to 21-0 and recorded his 16th knockout. Conwell, the WBC’s No. 1 contender in the 154-pound division, called out WBC interim super welterweight champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. during his post-fight interview with DAZN’s Chris Mannix in the ring.
Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs), of Grand Prairie, Texas, is scheduled to defend his title against Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undercard February 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Buenos Aires’ Vergara, 30, entered the ring with an unblemished record (20-0, 13 KOs). Conwell represented an enormous step up in class, however, and Vergara wasn’t capable of dealing with a boxer-puncher as sharp as him.
