In a move he “never, ever expected,” former Showtime boxing play-by-play voice Nick Charles will call at least one more bout.
Nick Charles will call Saturday’s Mikey Garcia/Matt Remillard boxing match for HBO, the first of two bouts on the network’s Boxing After Dark telecast.
Charles, who served as the play-by-play voice of Showtime’s boxing coverage during the 2000s, is battling Stage 4 bladder cancer. According to a recent Sports Illustrated profile, he decided against additional chemotherapy treatment that would have “offered a small chance to extend his life by a couple of months” (sportsillustrated.com, 3/7/11).
That same Sports Illustrated article caught the eye of HBO boxing executive Rick Bernstein.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Bernstein pitched HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg on having Charles call Saturday’s fight after reading this passage from the SI profile: “When [Charles] talks about how much he’d like to cover one more fight for television, he smiles and admits it probably won’t happen. ‘It’s O.K.,’ he says. ‘I’ve covered a lot of fights.'”
Charles will replace regular play-by-play voice Bob Papa on the first fight, working alongside Max Kellerman and Roy Jones.
“This is such a wonderful sign of fidelity, friendship and respect,” Charles told Yahoo! Sports, “I love boxing and I love calling boxing, and for these people at HBO to do what they?ve done and to give me another chance, I?ll be honest: I?m overwhelmed.”
