Charles Conwell isn’t pursuing a junior middleweight championship just for him and his supporters anymore.

The 22-year-old prospect hopes to honor Patrick Day’s memory by capturing a world title Day dreamed of owning throughout his boxing career. Conwell will fight Wednesday night five days shy of the one-year anniversary of his 10th-round knockout of Day, who died four later from brain trauma suffered during that defeat.

“I know he always wanted to be a world champion himself,” Conwell told BoxingScene.com, “so I’m looking to carry his legacy on and fight for not only myself, but fight for him and my family and friends and everybody else who support and push me.”

Cleveland’s Conwell (12-0, 9 KOs) is scheduled face Wendy Toussaint (12-0, 5 KOs), of Huntington, New York, in a main event Showtime will televise as part of its “ShoBox: The New Generation” series from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut (9 p.m. ET). Conwell has drawn motivation during training camp by thinking about Day, a college graduate who was just 27 when he died.

“To be honest, sometimes I think he’ll be looking down at me, from up above,” Conwell said, “just looking at me and pushing me and motivating me to do that extra mile or to take that extra step or to fight harder that last minute. So, just him giving me his energy and his blessing from above, it always helps push me in training and whatever I’m doing.”

Conwell, who considered quitting boxing after defeating Day, will fight for the second time since Day’s death last October 16 when he encounters Toussaint. In his last appearance, Conwell stopped Mexico’s Ramses Agaton (22-12-3, 12 KOs) following the fourth round of a scheduled eight-rounder February 8 in Hammond, Indiana.

It helped the 2016 U.S. Olympian tremendously to return to the ring relatively soon after the tragedy.

“I think it was a real big deal, to be honest,” Conwell said. “I was going through so much at that time, just to get back in there and know that I was capable of doing the same thing I was before, it just gave me a big relief. And it gave the fans and everybody else who supported me – my family and friends – a big relief, to know that I’m still the same person I was before the fight and after the fight.”

When Conwell first returned to training after Day’s death, Conwell’s trainer, Otha Jones Jr., felt as though he was holding back while punching. He became aggressive again by the time he squared off against Agaton, in part because those closest to him helped Conwell deal with the guilt and pain he has expressed publicly (https://www.boxingscene.com/charles-conwell-issues-heartfelt-letter-patrick-day--143401).

“A lot of people haven’t really been through nothing like that,” Conwell said, “so it’s really hard to explain the feeling, the type of pain and suffering that goes through your head, the type of stuff that goes through your head. It’s really hard to explain, but I can just say it was real tough for me. It was real hard. I was in a dark space. I just stayed around positive people and positive energy. Staying around good people helped me get from where I was.” 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.