Robson Conceição

Biography

Born in a humble neighborhood of Salvador, capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia, Conceição started boxing at the age of 13 to stand his own in street fights. He had to walk 9 kilometers to his academy due to not having money for bus tickets, woke up early in the morning to help his grandmother who sold groceries, and helped his family by selling ice cream and being a kitchen helper. His first coach was Luiz Dórea, who also managed world champion Acelino Freitas, Olympic medallist Adriana Araújo, and MMA fighter Junior dos Santos.

Just four months after entering the Brazilian boxing team, Conceição fought the qualifiers for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. While he fell in the first American qualifier to Idel Torriente, Conceição won all fights to get an Olympic spot. He eventually lost his opening match to Li Yang.

After losing in the first round of the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships, in 2011 Conceição won two bouts before a close decision 18:19 to the eventual winner Vasyl Lomachenko. That same year he got a silver medal at the 2011 Pan American Games, losing the final to eventual Olympic medalist Yasniel Toledo and guaranteeing a second Olympic spot. During the Pan Ams, Conceição proposed to his girlfriend, fellow boxer Érica Matos, whom he married in 2013. The following year the couple had a daughter, Sophia.

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London had Conceição again losing his first match. Hoping to take part in the 2016 Summer Olympics that would be hosted in Brazil, Conceição did not turn professional, instead signing with the Brazilian Navy to gain the scholarship and training facilities reserved for military sportspeople. Conceição won a silver and a bronze medal at the 2013 and 2015 tournaments, the latter guaranteeing him the Olympic spot. Before the Olympics, in 2015 Pan American Championships in Vargas, Venezuela, he won the gold medal after beating Cuban Lázaro Álvarez in the final, in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 8-19-15 he won a 3-0 decision against Lindolfo Delgado of Mexico; in the semifinals on 8-21-15 he won a 3-0 decision against Luis Angel Cabrera of Venezuela; in the finals on 8-22-15 he won a 3-0 decision against Lázaro Álvarez of Cuba. Come the tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Conceição won four uncontested fights, including over three-times world champion Lázaro Álvarez and European silver medallist Sofiane Oumiha, to become the first Brazilian boxer to win an Olympic gold medal.

After the 2016 Olympics, Conceição signed a professional promotion contract with Top Rank. He finished his amateur career with a record of 405-15 (405 wins and 15 losses) in 420 fights. Conceição's professional debut happened on November 5 in Las Vegas, as one of the undercards in the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas event. Fighting against Clay Burns of the United States, Conceição beat him in a unanimous decision.