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Marlon Starling-Original Magic Man


BoztheMadman
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One of the best welterweights in his era and likely ever, Marlon Starling was a defensive wizard that could give even Floyd Mayweather big problems. He was very clever, but also physically strong and tough and liked to brawl, which was always unusual for defensive wizards. He also had a rather good punch, despite not being considered a puncher. His power was more of the accumulation sort. He had a great chin as well and was never (oficially) knocked out in his 53 pro fights. His greatest victories were over Mark Breland, who was then undefeated and a freak of nature at 6'2, and Lloyd Honeyghan, who had previously dethroned the only man that was able to outbox Starling in his prime, Donald Curry. The 5'8 Starling was able to handle the taller men very well and had a big reach for his height-73 inches or 185 cm.

 

A native of Hartford, Connecticut, where he lives to this day, Starling was born 29 August 1959. As amateur, he was the 1977 semi-finalist at the welterweight AUU tournament, losing to Mike McCallum. He was also the Golden Gloves finalist at the 1975 and 1979 New England tournament, losing both times to Robbie Sims. His amateur record is 97-13. Starling turned pro just a month before his 20th birthday, 27 July 1979. In his sixth fight, he knocked out Charles Newell in 7 on 9 January 1980 and Newell died from the injuries 9 days later. On 9 March next year, he fought Floyd Mayweather senior at home in Hartford and put him down once before winning by UD10. On 17 July '82 he won the USBA title impressively by TKO'ing Kevin Morgan in 1 round at the Felt Forum in NY. After one more victory, he was 25-0 and ready to challenge the other best welterweight at the time, Donald Curry, the Lone Star Cobra. It was 23 October when they met in the ring in Atlantic City. The fight was competitive, but Starling clowned too much and Curry was more active, in the end winning by a split decision. Starling was given the fight by a judge who was also from Connecticut, by 117-113. Everyone else agreed Curry had won. Starling then knocked out the 16-0 Jose Baret, before fighting Kevin Howard, who would famously go on to knock down Sugar Ray Leonard and make history, a year later. Starling beat him by UD12 to add the NABF belt to his collection. He then had a tough fight against the 21-0 Tommy Ayers, in his first defense of both belts, and in the end won by MD12. He much later said it was his hardest, most exhausting fight ever. When he again faced Curry, he was now the WBA and IBF champion. It was 4 February '84 at Ballys Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. Starling was strongest in the middle rounds, but once again failed to beat Curry, who closed strong and won more rounds overall, to win by a UD15 this time.

 

Both fights had been a valuable experience for Magic Man and in his next fight he beat Lupe Aquino, then 23-1-1, by UD12 in another defense of his belts. He lost the NABF one surprisingly to Pedro Villela, 17-0 at the time, on 15 June that 1984, at Madison Square Garden. It was a close fight and Starling lost by a majority decision. He still had the USBA belt and defended it again in a rematch with Floyd Mayweather. He once again put Floyd sr down once before winning by UD12. On 22 November '85, he beat the 21-0 Simon Brown by SD12. Brown would go on to become the IBF and then WBC champion at 147. He then became the victim of an unfortunate loss, when his fight against Johnny Bumphus was stopped in round 6 because of an accidental headbutt that cut Bumphus badly. It went to the scorecards and Bumphus was the winner. It was now time for redemption for Marlon Starling and he avenged the loss to Pedro Villela on 18 February '87, putting the Mexican down in the first round and winning clearly on points in 10 rounds. He was finally given another title shot then and it was against the 18-0 Mark Breland, who had just won the WBA title. Breland had won the gold at the 1984 Olympics and had one of the best amateur resumes ever. He was also freakishly tall for the division at 6'2 and had both boxing skills and knockout power. It was on 22 August they fought, only 7 days before Starling's 28th birthday, at Township Auditorium in Columbia. The much shorter Starling knew he had to get dirty and go to the body, and that's what he did. Despite suffering a broken nose in round 6 due to Breland's hard punches, he gradually wore Breland down and Breland hit the canvas several times after being weakened by Starling's constant roughousing and body punching. In round 11, with Breland well ahead on the scorecards, the Magic Man finally did his trick when he first hit Breland, who was visibly tired and against the ropes, with three hard rights followed by a big left hook which put Breland down. That was it and Starling had knocked out the fabled Mark Breland to win the WBA title!

 

Next year, after first defending the title against Japanese Fujio Ozaki by a wide unanimous decision, he signed for a rematch with Breland and the fight happened, 16 April at Hilton Hotel in Vegas. Starling had a great start and hurt Breland in the first round with several good punches and then again in the fourth with a left hook. Breland came back in the middle rounds and had some success, but Starling again took charge after round 7. It was a rather messy fight again, like the first one and Breland took the last round but overall, Starling looked like the better man and landed more eyecatching shots. However, in the end, only one judge had him winning (by 116-113), while another had Breland winning 115-114 and the third had it even at 114-114 and so it became a draw. The crowd booed and naturally, Starling showed his dismay with the result. However, what would happen in his next fight would overshadow this controversy by far. In his third defense, he took on the unknown but undefeated and hard-hitting Tomas Molinares from Colombia. Molinares had scored 20 ko's in 23 wins. The fight was held on 29 July that year in Atlantic City. Starling was ahead on two scorecards going into round 6, by a point. The fight had been surprisingly competitive. It was then that the unthinkable happened; right at the bell, Molinares hit Starling flush on the jaw with a right hand bomb and Starling was down and out, for the first and only time in his career. However, the next day, the New Jersey comissioner Larry Hazzard determined after watching it on tape that the punch was thrown after the bell had sounded, thus turning it into a no contest. However, WBA refused to strip Molinares, until he himself had to relinquish it due to mental problems. Ironically, it was Mark Breland that then won it. Starling instead fought for the WBC one in his next match, against Lloyd "Ragamuffin Man" Honeyghan. Honeyghan only had one loss, which was a controversial technical decision, and 33 wins. He was very fast and could punch and box. He was therefore the favorite when they met on 4 February, 1989, 5 years on the day of the second Curry-fight, at Caesars Palace. Starling however dominated from the opening bell and gave the Jamaican-English champion his worst beating ever before stopping him by TKO in round 9. Starling was now a two-time world champion.

 

That fight pretty much marked the climax of Magic Man Starling's career. His first defense against the South Korean challenger Young Kil Yong was boring and uneventful, but he retained his title with a lopsided UD. He then surprised everyone when he chose to challenge the IBF MIDDLEWEIGHT champion Michael Nunn. Nunn was 6'2 like Breland, but naturally stronger and heavier. Starling weighed in at 158 while Nunn came in spot on the limit of 160. It was described as "tactical to the point of boredom", even though Starling later told myself it was a "fun fight". Perhaps he was being sarcastic. In the end, one judge scored it even, but the other two had it for the champion by wide scores and Starling thus ended that experiment with a majority loss. Going up and then down in weight must have affected him, for Starling lost his title in his second defense against Maurice Blocker, who was also 6'2 actually. This time, the fight was much more eventful, but Starling proved a surprisingly easy target. Blocker knocked his mouthpiece off in round 2 and shook him with consecutive hooks in round 8. Starling came all out in the last round and hurt Blocker, but it was a little too late and too little. Once again, he lost by a majority decision, that 19 August 1990 in Reno, Nevada. He was 31 when he retired, with a record of 45 wins with 27 ko's, 6 losses and that 1 controversial draw. Starling was trained by Eddie Futch and Eddie Roach, who was back then a protege of Futch. He has a distinction of being the first man to stop both Mark Breland and Lloyd Honeyghan and is also the only man to have (unoficially at least) bested Breland twice, or at least not lost to him in two fights.

 

As some of you may know, I had the pleasure of chatting with the man a couple times and about the Honeyghan fight he told me, after I asked him how he was able to beat him like that:"Because he wanted to fight and he can't. He was a bully and a lot of bullies can't fight." Known for his amusing quips, but also his criticism of Floyd Mayweather jr, Starling once said Mayweather would have been an ordinary fighter in his time. I bet many boxing history lovers would give just about anything to see those two fight, prime vs prime!

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