![]() ![]() Freddie Starr did a live link-up to the studio he did this funny little boxing sketch with him falling all around the place, which cracked me up.Įven Miss Sutton, my headteacher from Stebbon School, was there, and Miss Baker, the deputy head. Ray was just a young actor trying to make a name for himself. My old pal actor Ray Winstone was there, who's been a good friend of mine from the age of 12. All the England amateur squad that I'd fought with, all of Terry Lawless's stable, all the Royal Oak boys. There was everyone there that night, it was unbelievable. ![]() So I had a couple of glasses of champagne to take my nerves away. So we went to the hospitality room back at the ITV studios, and there was a big room full of food and booze, loads of champagne, loads of grub, everything you could want, and Eamonn said, 'Help yourself, Charlie, it's all for you.' Of course, Eamonn was a boxing commentator earlier in his career, and what a lot of people might not know was that he was a good amateur boxer himself in his younger days he was the Middleweight Champion of Ireland as an amateur. 'It's a great pleasure to be in this car with you, Eamonn.' 'What a great little fighter you are, Charlie, it's an honour to be presenting you with this.' He sat in the back of the car with me on the way there, and said, What a lovely bloke that Eamonn Andrews was, a lovely feller. 'We're going to take you away now, Charlie, to the television studios,' said Eamonn. I said, 'I'm meant to be going for a meal now, What's going on? Where am I going?' 'You're fucking joking, aren't you?' I said. As I looked round, his hood came down, and there was bloody Eamonn Andrews, saying, 'Charlie Magri, this is your life!' So I was standing there in the ring, and all of sudden I saw this big bloke in a dressing gown with the hood over his face come running into the ring with the spotlight on him. I was due to make an appearance in the ring before Jimmy's fight, just to sort of set the stage. So we arranged to go to the fight and then on to this restaurant called The Venus, on Bethnal Green Road, that we always used to go to for a nice meal afterwards. He'd been there with everyone else to watch me win the world title and, as a pal and stablemate, I owed it to be there for him at his debut. ![]() I sparred countless rounds with Jimmy, and there was no way that I wouldn't have gone to his first fight. I was very close to Jimmy, we always sparred together at the Royal Oak, and I'd tried to help him along in getting himself down to featherweight for his debut as professional. But Jimmy was one of my best mates in boxing, and I'd planned on going along anyway, whether I'd won or lost the world-title shot. Jim McDonnell's having his first fight, and they've invited us along.' Now the thing was, my missus hated boxing, she never wanted to come along to any of my fights, and she certainly normally wouldn't have wanted to go to someone else's. A week after I'd won the world title, she said to me, 'We're going to the York Hall, Charlie. ![]() What I didn't know was that she was off meeting up with Terry Lawless, making arrangements for what turned out to be the biggest surprise of my life. Now, because of this, I guess I wasn't really on the ball, and I can remember during the week after the fight my wife kept on popping out all the time, saying she had to do this and that. Everyone wants to talk to you and shake your hand, the newspapers are in touch with you all the time, and suddenly everyone knows your name. It's an unbelievable feeling being a World Champion, because, as a fighter, that's the thing you dream about your whole career, and, suddenly, you've done it, and you're the champion. The week after I won the world title, I was on cloud nine. When you reach the end of the journey, you don't know what to do next, and you're sort of in a daze. When you actually get there, it doesn't feel real, because you've suddenly achieved what you've been working for all your life. Lots of people have dreams, but not that many of them get their hands on what they dream about, they're just dreams. When you achieve your life's dream, I tell you what, it's the strangest feeling. Charlie Magri recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Champagne Charlie, The Greatest Boxer of His Generation. ![]()
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