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It's a lesson for all of us.
Do what you love, and don't let anything hold you back.
Do what you love, and don't let anything hold you back.
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yes i didnt watch the telecast but if they had nick on that was a really classy move.he came back to showtime but had to go back for more treatment shortly after...i wish the best for nick & hope he is back on a broadcast team as soon as hes healthy...Comment
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That was certainly a very nice thing they did. Nick should be able to come on whenever he want throughout the duration of his life. He is much better than Bob Papa. I enjoyed his call of the fight last night.Comment
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His dying wish was to call one more boxing match and I'm glad HBO obliged. His voice gives weight to the sport, and he brings out the best of those around him. Even Kellerman didn't seem as annoying last night, well not until the main event anyway.
It will be a sad day when he passes, and unfortunately, that day will be soon. But he has lived a life many of us could only dream of, so instead of shedding too many tears, we should celebrate his life and the contributions he made to boxing.Comment
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Did Papa say anything outside of the opening monologue? I wanted to watch the HBO version of the fight just because of Nick Charles, but my stream died halfway through the Garcia fight. All I could find was a Top Rank stream (which Tompkins and especially Farhood ****** all night). But it was great to hear and see Charles for another time.Comment
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I did not know that was his dying wish,i just teared up from that man.Originally posted by timba View PostComment
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Yes, he did. After the fight Charles said his goodbyes to the team and Papa thanked him, gave a handshake, and told him that he loved him.Originally posted by IIG View PostComment
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ATLANTIC CITY - Nick Charles, working ringside at the small room inside Boardwalk Hall, called his last boxing match Saturday night. He won't ever do it again.
It's not because Charles is retiring. It's not because he's being fired and drummed out of the broadcasting business.
Charles, 64, has Stage 4 bladder cancer and literally has a few weeks at most to live.
Working one last boxing broadcast was a dying wish from a man whose fight with cancer has led him to epitomize the strength and bravery that he has witnessed inside the ring in more than three decades of calling matches.
Charles did most of his play-by-play work for Showtime, but it was its rival, HBO, that granted him his wish, allowing him to call the first match of a doubleheader on its "Boxing After Dark" broadcast Saturday night. Mikey Garcia (25-0, 21 KOs) stopped Matt Remillard on a 10th-round TKO after Remillard (23-1, 13 KOs), who was knocked down three times in featherweight the fight, failed to come out for the 11th round in Charles' bout. In the main event, Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0, 16 KOs) knocked down Jorge Solis (40-3-2, 29 KOs) four times before stopping him at 1:31 of the fourth round to retain the IBF featherweight title.
Charles' participation came about when Rick Bernstein, the executive producer of HBO boxing broadcasts, was on the train heading into work one morning and read a story on the announcer and his battle with cancer in Sports Illustrated. He was touched by a comment from Charles in the article that he'd like to cover one more fight for television before he died, but that it probably wouldn't happen. Bernstein and Charles were acquainted because Charles had been the host for some of the HBO pay-per-view shows in the 1990s.
Bernstein was so moved by the comment that he went to Ross Greenburg, HBO Sports president, and told him he was going to use Charles on the Garcia-Remillard fight. Greenburg agreed that they should. After determining that Charles would be available and strong enough to work, they finalized the details.
Charles last worked a fight on Dec. 4 in Anaheim, calling the match between Humberto Soto and Urbano Antillon on a Top Rank Promotions pay-per-view. It was an all-action bout that many thought was the 2010 Fight of the Year.
There are very few acts of kindness in boxing, because the business is so cutthroat. Bernstein and Greenburg are to be applauded for granting Charles a dying wish. It is truly a humane act in a cruel world.
It was an exhausting weekend in Atlantic City for Charles, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., with his beloved wife of 14 years, Cory, and cherished 5-year-old daughter, Giovanna. He had to take two flights and an hour-long car ride to reach AC. On Friday, he went through a day of interviews with the fighters and production meetings.
He threw himself into the work, doing all the necessary research and planning to make the broadcast go smoothly. He was exhausted, but happy to be back in the mix for one last time.
Charles is the ultimate professional, even when he's thrown a curveball.
I witnessed that firsthand. Before Mike Tyson fought Julius Francis in England, his PR people had set up a few one-on-one interviews with Tyson in a hotel ballroom where he was working out a few days before the fight. I was the only U.S. newspaper reporter that Tyson would talk to during that session. Charles, as part of the Showtime broadcast team, was also slated to interview Tyson.
Tyson talked to me first. The interview went well, until the end. An innocent question about sightseeing in London sent Tyson on an emotional roller coaster. The last stop was screaming anger as Tyson had to be restrained by his handlers as he unleashed a ******* of expletives my way.
Charles, who was setting up for his interview just across the room, witnessed the end of the tirade. He walked over to me and said, "Thanks for warming him up for me."
It is easy to feel sorry for Charles. You wouldn't be human if you didn't. But we should all celebrate his bravery, his courage and his strength in the face of the finality of the dreadful disease that has stricken him. And we should applaud those who are willing to grant a dying man an opportunity to live out his dream one last time.
n For more on the HBO bouts, go to nydailynews.com/sports
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