Nick Charles Says Good-Bye to ShoBox

This Friday night, the latest installment of “ShoBox” comes from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois and features a trio of super middleweight prospects in Donovan “Da Bomb” George, Marcus Johnson and Edwin “La Bomba” Rodriguez, who all seem to be matched fairly tough. It looks to be a good show on paper, at the very least. Unfortunately, it will be the last broadcast for Nick Charles, who has been a mainstay on this series alongside Steve Farhood.


After being diagnosed with cancer last summer, Charles had battled back to get behind the mic once again in 2010. But this upcoming telecast will be his swan song.
"Yeah, it’s gotta be; I got this damn cancer," said Nick Charles, on a recent edition of “The Main Event.” “It’s just so aggressive; it went into remission in December and I was able to come back. It was just so wonderful coming back, it was just a wonderful return for me. Showing up, still looking beaten up and you know how I looked. Like I went 12 rounds with Joe Louis, 12 rounds with Frazier, 12 rounds with Ali and here comes Mike Tyson. That’s how my face looked and that’s how my body felt and it was just very important to get back in the game and feeling relevant. And being around a whole subculture I love, from cut men, guys carrying buckets, to the fighters themselves, press row, you know how much we all love it, the subculture. Everybody who loves boxing immediately identifies with that.


"Coming back to that, there was a lot of love going around in a ruthless game,” continued Charles. “Just feeling that and coming back and just watching those tapes and getting back in here, digging deep and making phone calls to the trainers, it was so euphoric for me. And then in March, for my three-month check-up, it was the first time since I only had cancer diagnosed since last August. I went in; it was the first time I had been off chemo. Now it’s your body fighting the cancer."


Unfortunately for Charles, he was hit with another haymaker.


"It just had come back too much in my lungs. It’s bladder cancer, but it’s in my lungs, so it’s not curable. So they called it ’pronounced growth.’"


Being the consummate professional he is, Charles gave Showtime not only notice of his condition, but an opportunity to prepare for the future without him.


"I said, ’Listen, I just need another six weeks. We’ve got a busy April. I want to look and feel like a human being for a little while longer before I gotta climb in bed with this monster. So May 6th, I gotta climb in bed with the monster again and knock this thing back," said Charles, with his typical resolve. "I can’t knock it out; I’m going to need a gift from God for that and it’s killing me. But I told ShoBox, ’Look, I want to come back but the first sign of trouble, I’m going to step back because I can’t do that to you.’ Is the host ready? Can he do it? Is he going to wake up the day of the show and not be able to get out of bed because his blood counts are down? That kinda stuff. It just wouldn’t be fair to anybody. But man, it hurts; I gotta tell ya. It hurts."


That’s Charles in a nutshell- passionate and considerate of those around him. There are many who are in boxing because it represents a paycheck. He’s in the sport because he genuinely loves it and like the rest of the “ShoBox” staff, they take immense pride in what they produce. This is more than just a business to him. There really is nothing else he’d rather be doing for the rest of his career.


"I owe it to Showtime because it’s a regular series, but I still want to really stay in the game," said Charles. "I want to be doing some of the Top Rank shows or whatever it is. I just gotta be ringside and it’s just too much in my blood and I care so much about the fighters and all the people around them, who mean well for them. You know how it is; you go to the gym; you see people and I don’t care if it’s ’Million Dollar Baby’; that stuff is baloney.


"There’s people in there who just want to be around it because they really have a love for it. The characters, the color, it’s something that’ll be a part of me till I die. Believe me."


FAVORITE MOMENT?

I asked Charles what was his most memorable moment/fight on “ShoBox”?


"I’d have to say the wild confusion with Cornelius Bundrage and Sechew Powell, that double knockdown and the fact that it was like two guys on a string, that Powell was able to get up first and knock him down again. You had three knockdowns in 22 seconds in a fight that ended that way," Charles recalled of that short slugfest that took place in May of 2005. "And you better be on top of your game because there was so much confusion going on and Dick Flaherty, the referee…did he blow it or not?


"Did he see one knockdown and not see another? Who is he counting? Was he counting both guys? So in terms of a compression theme that way- oh, my gosh- and an explosive moment. That had to be tops."

damn bad news.wish him all the best