USA's Charles Conwell facing difficult decision after Olympic loss

RIO DE JANEIRO — Years from now, if he never returns to the Olympic Games, Charles Conwell is going to look back on his opening bout with India’s Krishan Vikas in 2016 and cringe.

It was one of those winnable fights that he let get away. Conwell, who at 18 is the youngest member of the U.S. boxing team, threw his arms in the air in disgust upon hearing the verdict. Judges favored Vikas 29-28 on all three cards.

Conwell could have won it Tuesday if he’d gotten a break from a favorable judge, but few had a problem with the decision. Conwell appeared to be the more skilled guy, but was beaten by an opponent who simply had a better sense of what it takes to impress the judges at this level.

Conwell pressed the action but he never landed that one big power shot which could have changed the tide. He landed more consistently in the third, which the judges gave him, but he seemed unable to find the distance where he could take best advantage of his powerful straight right hand.

“Very, very close,” U.S. coach Billy Walsh said of the fight. “It was one we could have won, but didn’t. I thought [Conwell] clearly destroyed him in the third round. The guy hardly threw a punch. The first two rounds were a bit too close for my liking. I’d have liked to seen him step on the gas more.”

Because Conwell was the one moving forward most of the night, he felt he was the one dictating the fight and controlling the action.

But he often found himself at the incorrect distance, where his punches were smothered and Vikas was able to tie him up. The referee was continuously pulling the fighters out of the clinch, and that destroyed any flow or momentum Conwell might have built.

Still, Conwell felt he’d won without question.

“I felt I did enough to edge out all the rounds,” he said. “I could have started faster. I could have done more. You can always do better, but I thought I pulled out the decision.”

Vikas, who was beaten on an appeal by budding star Errol Spence Jr. at the 2012 Games in London, made it difficult for Conwell throughout.

He didn’t land anything particularly memorable, but scored in the way that wily veterans, particularly wily left-handed veterans, always seem to do in these kinds of fights.

There was a short hook here and a chopping left there. None of it was significant and it didn’t draw any reaction from the crowd, but it was effective when Conwell essentially was at the incorrect distance to let his hands move.

“That was a very good opponent,” Walsh said of Vikas. “He’s been to the London Olympics and is experienced doing a lot of things. He’s been around. Charles is a baby. He’s 18 years of age. It’s a big learning curve for him.”

The question now is whether Conwell, who graduated high school just a few weeks ago, will stay in the Olympic program and take a shot at the gold in Tokyo in 2020, or choose to turn professional.

He wasn’t in much of a mood Tuesday to consider that. He has been on the road a great deal and is in desperate need of down time to recharge.

“I’ve been going so hard for so long, I just want to go back and enjoy time with [my friends and family],” Conwell said.

As an 18-year-old who lost in the first round and whose name doesn’t resonate yet with the general public, it could be a tough go for him if he turns pro now. Simply appearing in the Olympics doesn’t by itself bring a fighter a lot of cachet. It takes a medal, usually gold, to seize the attention of the American boxing public which to a large degree has ignored amateur boxing in recent years.

But returning to the amateurs, winning the world championship and returning to the U.S. team for the 2020 Games could be his path to a huge payoff.

He’s quick and powerful, though at 5-feet-9, he’s not particularly tall for a middleweight. But he has most of the elements to win a medal, potentially even a gold, next go-round. If he does, promoters would be lining up for his services.

Walsh clearly would love to have him back, but that’s a mystery at this stage.

“It’s something we’ll sit down and discuss later, but that would be the plan,” Walsh said of a return. “But we’ll see where his head’s at and go from there.