Nick Charles
ABOUT THE NICK CHARLES INTERVIEW(S)
San Francisco, CA– This is a compilation of a “Ring Talk Worldwide” radio interview, phone calls and Nick Charles’ last email to me about a month ago. The award winning broadcaster, who started out driving a New York City taxi, died last week after a two year battle with stage #4 Pancreatic Cancer. Ever since the diagnosis was made, the clock on Nick’s time here on earth was ticking off second by second, and Nick knew from the get-go that this was a fight in the end he would not win.
STAYED IN RING OF LIFE FOR 15 HARD ROUNDS
The form of Cancer Nick had usually kills a person in weeks, if not a couple of months. Charles, using his wife’s Health Insurance from CNN, underwent Chemotherapy and other treatments that were not expected to save Nick’s life, rather it was to give him more time with his wife and young daughter. When he succumbed late last week in New Mexico, Nick Charles, the man who started out with CNN in 1980 doing a nightly sports show with Fred Hickman was 64.
Ring Talk (RT): He is the comeback fighter of of the year, I kid you not folks, I’m talking about Showtime’s Nick Charles. Nick, it’s wonderful to have you on the show. How are you and the family?
Nick Charles (NC)- Pedro we’re doing well and couldn’t be better. You know when we talk about comebacks, I was just looking at messages from friends, people in boxing, I think what the alternatives I have?
I could just checked out or fight this thing and so far somebody else called me in boxing earlier and said it’s like a twelve round fight and you were knocked down early lost some 10-8 rounds, that this kind of thing and this kind of cancer is like a guy coming back like Juan Manuel Marquez did against Manny Pacquiao, that sort of thing.
RT– You know you’re on the “Wall of Fame” here on RingTalk.com and not for just your contributions in the broadcasting business, rather because you’re you, Nick Charles, one hell of a classy man. You were one of the original, and I say this affectionately, one of the original talking heads at CNN. How’s that sound?
NC– I always look at these TV anchors, in addition to the things you hear from so and so, but behind them it was like the porch light was on but no one there. Some were talking heads saying, “Hello my name is ‘blank’ because they didn’t fill in the blanks on the teleprompter. One of the things we prided ourselves on in sports, and being a sports person who did highlight reels and scenes, was thinking on our feet for better or worse, you had to write your own copy. It’s more than what most news anchors did. You know in the U.K. they call them news readers, I never thought like that but for better or worse I always used my own copy and I’m still standing.
RT– Good enough, your first card back in several months was in Albuquerque, NM was Chris Avalos and Jose Nieves that was the main event wasn’t it.
NC– Yeah and I thought it would be a bigger challenge for Avalos, he’s a guy with a lot of confidence bordering on cocky you know. He seems to be in a rush at 21 or 20 actually just turned 20 has fifteen fights now and I thought Nieves with such a solid technical foundation Pedro, he would give him fits a least for a while, but that he couldn’t survive his first scheduled ten rounder main event on national television. Avalos is all about aggression sometimes his offense is his best defense, he really took it to this Puerto Rican Nieves and I was very impressed so maybe this guy is the next big thing. Currently, I think he’s a top 15 fighter so I wouldn’t rush somebody at 20 but he seems to be on the right track to possibly becoming something special.
RT– Do you know why cocky kids guys from the hood need to be rushed to super stardom quickly Nick? It’s because longevity is not in the cards sometimes, an indication of their lifestyle, where they’re from, the whole nine yards it’s just not happening. Take Fernando Vargas, they rushed him into that fight with Felix Trinidad because he was having problems outside of the ring.
NC– Such a good point Pedro, I fully understand that growing up in the poor side of a Chicago neighborhood and I understand that about boxers you want to be somebody so bad, we were talking about Francisco Bojado we had him on SHO BOX our first year and thought this guy could be extraordinary. By his second or third appearance, his entourage was bigger than Mike Tyson’s, and I said there’s something wrong with this from a guy so far away from being a champion. So it’s a matter of keeping your head on straight and that’s really difficult in boxing historically because you spring from nothing and all of a sudden you’re somebody and it’s hard to keep it in perspective.
RT– We’re talking with Nick Charles who made his TV comeback this past Friday in Albuquerque, NM. Was this your first card in seven months?
NC– Well I did the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto international feed, but for Showtime, yeah the first in six months, Bob Arum was nice enough to say “I don’t care what you look like, we know you can do the job,” that’s how I got the Pacquiao-Cotto fight. I looked like I had just gone 15 rounds with Joe Frazier and George Foreman in their primes from all the chemotherapy, and it was really a struggle up until that day. I gotta be honest with you. I was really hurting and I thought I gotta suck this up because I made a commitment and I was laying down in bed in Las Vegas and bingo, I felt like a million bucks and could run through a brick wall, so the adrenaline really kicked in for that card, but now that I’ve been off the chemotherapy for two months it makes a big difference health and energy wise. Talking to my boss at Showtime, Gordon Hall and the many well-wishers, it never seemed I missed a beat or was away. I never gave up or lost hope that SHO BOX would be part of my future and it has been. So life is good Pedro and I can’t complain so I’m very grateful, always have been and it’s helped my attitude. You know it doesn’t matter how many knocks in life you get, I never said why me, nor do I expect the best in all people, I’m not some naive dude believe me.
RT– Nick Charles our guest folks having come back from cancer, he is our comeback fighter of the year. Switching gears a bit on the medical issue, health insurance are you paying 20% or all of your bills, do you have health insurance, how did it go down?
NC– No no you gotta have health insurance in this country, thank God my wife works for CNN and I get health insurance through her because I’m sort of a hired gun in boxing. I don’t know if I should, but you bought it up, it’s things like chemotherapy and they really give it to you because they have to give you the strong stuff that knock the hell out of you as your red blood count goes down to nothing, you’re on the floor, and that’s the gas in your tank of life. But your white blood count also goes to pot, so you’re susceptible to all sorts of infections when you leave the hospital at the end of chemotherapy. Each shot costs $6,000. So think about it, if you don’t have great insurance, I’ve talked to nurses and doctors and asked can everybody get this shot, I mean I have great insurance? They say everyone cannot and it’s a shame that happens in our country. That some can’t afford something that can threaten their lives and have to do without.
RT– The only modern country in the world without universal health insurance. Nick, what’s the weight like, have you put it back on?
NC– I never lost it, I was in the gym four or five times a week, and while looking at the dumbbells your energy is down and so I said I’m going to work just as hard. With the strength in the gym at least you can measure it by doing the same amount of reps and weights and the same workout before I had cancer and it was a psychological boost and it really helped me in my chemotherapy knockout sessions doing wall push ups and dips. The nurses and doctors are looking and laughing at me. Well by the fourth day the nurses were doing them with me. They said you’re doing the right thing, not everyone has the same cancer Pedro, when people call me and say, Lance Armstrong and my uncle had this and that, well the point is that with the many cancers out there, the people who do crappy lay in bed for four days when they get the chemotherapy, are the ones with a bad attitude and that doesn’t help them. I think a good attitude and taking care of yourself cause damn Pedro I took care of myself before this happened and it still happened as a random thing so I’m not gonna spit the bit out as they say at the race track.
RT– You know I’ve had a lot of death in my family the past years, my mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my stepfather. When my stepfather (the great) Michael Ramirez was going through chemotherapy, I’d pick him up some Marijuana brownies and his smoking pot really relieved him with the the chemo side effects, it brought him back to earth and he began eating and living a more normal life. It helped his woes, was medicinal marijuana part of your recovery?
NC– You know somebody asked me that the other day and I never even considered it. With chemotherapy the side effects are horrible, and me with the hardest chemotherapy out there, and I don’t want to sound melodramatic but I asked what would happen if I didn’t take it and they said. “you’ll have four to six months to live,” so I said I’m taking it. They gave me the biggest batch they had and the side effects were so bad I don’t want to get into them so I understand where your stepfather is coming from but I was going to tough it out. I didn’t know if I was eating cardboard or a big juicy steak, but I believe in eternity and all that. I’m good with God and nobody wants to die, but I’m at peace. But I want to be around, I have a little daughter I love so much and lovely wife.
NICK CHARLES “UNPLUGGED” PART II THURSDAY
Part II of the Nick Charles interview(s) will appear Thursday here at RingTalk.com. Special thanks to Edwin “Ace” Ayala for his transcribing this from audio to print.
Pedro Fernandez