Packing a punch: Brownson House boxer undefeated
Observer-Reporter
Matt Conway, right, trains at the Brownson House in Washington. Conway (17-1) will fight Gabriel Flores, Jr. (16-0) in a super featherweight bout Saturday night in Las vegas as part of the undercard for the WBC heavyweight championship fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.
Jack Conway ties his son Matt’s gloves before a sparring session at the Brownson House last month.
The music blares through the small but very functional boxing gym in the basement of the Brownson House.
Hopeful fighters go through daily routines, whipping jump rumps over their heads, sending body punches to the heavy bag and going through the never-ending sparring routines that are so important in the development of the athletes.
One of them, Matt Conway, tears into these routines four days a week for two hours each day, preparing for the next challenge.
Conway has won all 10 fights in his pro career and will be on an Oct. 28 card at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort in New Cumberland, W.Va., against a to be determined opponent. Conway opened training for the fight two weeks ago at the Brownson House.
Conway, 22, has had his 10 wins – and four knockouts – spread over three sites: Mountaineer, Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino and Wheeling Downs. He turned pro at 19.
“There aren’t that many people who have more amateur boxing experience than me,” said Conway. “I’ve fought the best in the country so not much surprises me in the ring. Some comes into the ring, there’s not too many who can outbox me. … I have to work on strength. I just don’t have that knockout power. I still have time to develop that.”
During his amateur days, Conway was part of a United States team that fought a group from Ireland. At ringside, shouting instructions to Conway was Paul Spadafora.
“He was always at the local fights. I was at one of his training camps,” said Conway. “For six weeks, I was sparring with him. It was real cool having him at my matches, rooting for me.”
Conway patterns his style off Vasyl Lomachenko, a Ukranian who won two Olympic titles and currently holds the WBO super featherweight title.
“He has a very unique style,” Conway said. “He uses a lot of angles and catches you off balance all the time. He’s a very slick fighter.”
Conway works in the asphalt business and his brother Mike, a frequent sparring partner, works on an oil rig.
Matt Conway loves the sport because it demands individual determination.
“It’s just you and your opponent,” he said. “You go at it and the best man wins. There is nothing like that feeling when you get your hand raised. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
Conway’s first win came in May 2015 against Anthony Dave of Canton, Ohio, in Wheeling, a first-round TKO.
“We’ll move up in stages,” said Conway’s father Jack, who is Matt’s manager. “We’re looking for journeymen fighters now. We’re at 10-0 so now we’re looking for the tougher journeymen. When we do that, it would bring more of a challenge to him.”
Conway is one of three family members who were drawn into this sport. Jack boxed in the army, his oldest brother, Sean, has battled in the heavyweight ranks, and Mike, 11 months older than Matt, is a super lightweight.
A decade ago, all three brothers were on the same amateur card at a show at Trader Jack’s in Pittsburgh.
“Mike and I were on a show together as pros and we wanted to get Sean, but it didn’t work,” Matt Conway said. “That would be so much fun.”
If you box, then you normally have a nickname. Matt’s is “Sweet Child,” Mike’s is “Maverick,” honed from the movie “Top Gun” and Sean’s is “Tonka Truck.”
“Sean fights once a year, in the winter, after he gets laid off from work (in construction),” said Matt. “His last fight, he went in at 215 and his opponent was 313 pounds. The Tonka Truck name fits him perfectly.”
Matt Conway graduated from Baldwin High School in 2013. Mike and Matt each wrestled but neither stayed with the sport.
“Mike was always better at wrestling than me. I did it because I loved it. I won a couple matches but Mike was better.”
Conway was raised in Brookline, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and trained at various gyms, including Carrick and South Park, before his parents moved to Washington.
“We had always heard of the Brownson House,” Matt Conway said. “We came out here one night and once we moved here, this gym became my home.”