Marlon Starling

[Dynamite76]

Whats your take on him & his career?

growing up around a half hour from Hartford, you couldn't help, but take notice of Marlon, from the time he was a prospect sparring with Hearns for the first Leonard fight, to the time he lost to Curry the first time.I always thought that Marlon had good speed, tight defense, and good power.In a way, it's a shame he was in a division with a slightly better fighter, or he would've gotten noticed more.Also, if he had a fight with Milton McCrory, maybe he could've pulled the trick earlier.

[Ray Corso]

First saw Starling box when he was an open class amatuer, he boxed out of Hartford's Nelson Memorial Club operated by F. Mac Buckley. Mac trained Starling through his amatuer and most of his pro fights and should have been with him throughout his later bouts in my opinion. Marlon was quick handed and knew the ins & ous of styles and techniques but choose to fight out of a "cover up" style and blocked alot of shots that way but it was not an appealing style to watch and/or judge! He had decent power and worked up & down very nicely and countered well. He gave away some size in his era, being 5'8" and holding 147 easily he short then but had a muscular build and was in shape and willing to win. Someone mentioned he had some bad luck and thats very true, he also took advantage of situations and proved alot of doubters wrong.
Marlon had a big heart for kids and was great in the gym sparring with all ages and sizes and actually working with the individuals not just goofing around. We had alot of fun at the Hartford Civic Center when Starling was just beginning, I had fighters on the cards and along with Mac and guys like Johnny Duke and Pep the locker area was filled with tall tales, lies and BS hahaha!!
We did have tragedy back then when Charlie Newell passed away after a bout with Moochie were he suffered a Ko! Some time later it was discovered that Charlie had a head injury from an auto accident and his years of boxing plus the auto accident had contributed to his death however it took some guts and determination from Marlon to over come this tragedy!!
I haven't spoken to him since probably 1985, I sure hope he's well and that his family is well too! Marlon "the Magic Man" Starling (the ONLY magic man)
Ray.

[Mintcar923]

Unfortunately, I really didn't see Marlon until toward the end of his career when he suffered that "After the bell," KO to Molinares and then he had that stunning victory over Honeyghan. I suppose he picked the wrong fight against the awkward Michael Nunn when he had moved up in weight. However, I really liked his style and his tremendous ability to block and parry was just amazing. Even to this day, I have never seen anyone do the kind of defensive tactics he did quite as well. I view him as a very underated fighter that should have gotten a lot more accolades...