Marlon Starling

Marlon Starling
Data
Birth Name	Marlon Starling
Fight name	Magic Man
Weight class	Welterweight
nationality	United States
birthday	August 29, 1959
place of birth	Hartford
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.73 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	53
Victories	45
Knockout victories	27
Defeats	6th
draw	1
No value	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Marlon Starling (born August 29, 1959 in Hartford , Connecticut ) is a former American professional boxer and world champion of the WBA and WBC welterweight.

Career

Marlon Starling won 97 of 110 amateur fights and won a bronze medal at the US welterweight championships in 1977 after losing to Mike McCallum in the semi-final . He started professional boxing in 1979 and was trained by Eddie Futch and Freddie Roach throughout his career . He boxed only in the United States, 30 times in his hometown Hartford.

In its build-up phase, he won 25 fights in a row, 16 of them prematurely. In January 1980 he defeated Charles Newell by knockout; he died days later of the consequences of his injuries. In March 1981, he defeated Floyd Mayweather Sr. , father of the later famous boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr .; He also defeated Floyd Sr. in another fight in April 1985.

He suffered his first defeat in October 1982 by a split point decision against Donald Curry , to which he was also subject in February 1984 in the fight for the WBA and IBF titles by unanimous points. In April 1984 he became NABF North American Champion by unanimously winning points against Lupe Aquino . In June of the same year he suffered a narrow loss to Pedro Vilella, but defeated him in a rematch in February 1987.

After a points win against Simon Brown in November 1985, he lost again just on points against Johnny Bumphus in May 1986 . Due to the collision of the two athletes with the heads, the fight was stopped due to injury, at the time of which Bumphus was just in the lead.

On August 22, 1987 he finally became world champion of the WBA by a tKo victory in the eleventh round against Mark Breland , world champion and Olympic champion of the amateurs, as well as unbeaten professional (18-0, 12 knockout). This was followed in February 1988 a successful title defense against the Japanese Fujio Ozaki, as well as a tie in the rematch with Mark Breland in April 1988. He finally lost the title controversially on July 29, 1988 to the Colombian Tomás Molinares . Starling had been knocked to the ground and knocked out by the challenger at the end of the fifth round by a blow, which occurred shortly after the round gong. Referee Joe Cortez then falsely declared Molinares the winner, before after evaluating the video recordings the fight was declared valueless due to hitting after the round gong. Even so, Starling didn't get the title back despite being leading on points at the time of the downfall.

On February 4, 1989 he won the WBC title by tKo victory in the ninth round against Lloyd Honeyghan and defended it unanimously in September 1989 against the South Korean Yung-Kil Chung. He then rose to the middleweight division. In this weight class, he suffered narrow point defeats in two other world championship fights against Michael Nunn and Maurice Blocker , which is why he ended his career in 1990.

For the 1980s he was named one of the top five welterweights in the world by KO Magazine . In 2005 he was inducted into the Connecticut Boxing Hall of Fame . In 2014 he was honored by the Hartford Public High School Athletic Hall of Fame with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his sporting achievements.

predecessor	Office	successor
Mark Breland	Welterweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) August 22, 1987 - July 29, 1988	Tomás Molinares

predecessor	Office	successor
Lloyd Honeyghan	Welterweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) February 4, 1989 - August 19, 1990	Maurice Blocker

Web links

• Athlete profile at BoxRec
• Overview of his professional fights at BoxRec
• List of Connecticut Boxing Hall of Famer 's official website