CLEVELAND – Charles Conwell was impressive again Sunday night in a fight only his hometown fans witnessed.
Cleveland’s Conwell, a 2016 U.S. Olympian, stopped previously unbeaten Juan Carlos Rubio in the third round of a scheduled 10-round junior middleweight match at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The 23-year-old Conwell’s win was the only one of the five Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley undercard bouts that wasn’t part of Showtime’s pay-per-view telecast.
Conwell (16-0, 12 KOs) dropped Mexico’s Rubio (18-1, 9 KOs) early in the second round and battered him throughout the third round. Referee Lonnie Scott stepped between them to stop the one-sided bout at 2:49 of the third round.
Rubio, 23, had fought against a very low level of opposition before he encountered Conwell. His previous six opponents entered their losses to Rubio with a combined record of 84-90-5.
Rubio let his hands go more during the third round than in the first two rounds, but Conwell connected with a left uppercut that made Rubio hold him. Conwell landed a right hand several seconds later that made Rubio retreat.
Conwell continued to hammer away at Rubio until Scott stepped between them to halt the action.
Conwell caught Rubio with a right hand that sent the backtracking Rubio to the seat of his trunks early in the second round. Rubio reached his feet pretty quickly and fended off Conwell enough to make it to the third round.
Conwell kept Rubio on his back foot from the opening bell and pressured him throughout the first round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing