A MD loss against Nunn, a SD loss against Curry, a draw with Breland and a MD loss against Blocker. Which did he deserve to win? I've heard it said that the Breland draw was absolute ****, but I'm most curious on the SD Curry call. Was Curry simply destined for bigger things and far more marketable then Starling hence the SD against Marlon?
He deserved the loss against Nunn, in what was quite possibly the most boring fight I've ever seen. Old people ****ing sounds more appealing than seeing those two have a rematch. The Breland fight was very close, but I haven't seen it in over 20 years. I watched that fight on HBO right around the time I was leaving 8th grade and going into highschool.
I thought he deserved the win against Breland. I thought the decision for Curry was appropriate. The loss to Blocker was appropriate. Starling faded badly down the stretch. He was smart to retire then. I think I blocked the Nunn fight from my mind and haven't seen Starling - Brown in a long, long time.
Starling vs Nunn was a thing of beauty compared to the recent garbage Jermaine taylor offered us.Not saying much i know...
I respect both Nunn and Starling as fighters, but against each other, they looked like sorority sisters having a pillow fight. There was no action in that match AT ALL... At times, it appeared as though they were just slapping one another, and quite often missing those slaps. I'm glad I wasn't one of the people who paid big bucks for a ticket to that fight.
Never really had a lot time for Starling. He was a very boring inartistic fighter, in an era of much more interesting characters. Of the defeats listed, Starling did not deserve the benefit of any doubt in any of them. He deserved, rightly, to beat Brown. BrelandII; both deserved to be shot for putting on such inept performances, from allegedly then two of boxing's best.
Starling was a guy that would give a lot of the great fighters trouble. But I agree, he was very boring at times.
Marlon Starling was too defensive minded when pitted against superior boxers or bigger men like "Curry & Nunn." Marlon Straling was a damn good boxer, but he often failed to let his hands go enough.... He liked to keep his hands up and make "Ear-Muffs." The 1990 middleweight fight between Michael Nunn and Marlon Starling reminded me of the '74 fight between Carlos Monzon and Jose Napoles, except, not nearly as one-sided..... Napoles took a beating; Starling did NOT! MR.BILL:good
I agree. In his first fight against Curry, I remember him consistently being in a good position on the inside to let his hands go. But a lot of the time he would just stand there with his guard up or bounce back and do the 'Starling Stomp'. He was quite frustrating.
Funny enough, I just watched the Blocker loss again today. Very close fight throughout, and very hard to score. Starling pressed the fight all the way and sometimes landed the harder punches, but Blocker was busier. Blocker outflurried Starling the last two rounds, and that won him the fight. I thought Starling should've had the edge against Breland, but he did allow Breland to come on a bit in the late rounds as I recall. I wouldn't say it was necessarily a bad decision, but a draw was basically giving Breland every possible benefit of the doubt. The Nunn fight could've been scored 0-0. Neither fighter deserved to win that fight IMO. Nunn was given the decision because he was slightly busier (but no more effective) and because of his status as the champion and the "name" fighter. The story of Starling's career is that as good and capable as he was, he was just a bit too disciplined - in other words, he allowed his opponents to outhustle or outgut him in key moments in fights, and that's what made the difference between clinching a win for himself and allowing the fight to be close enough to be a draw or loss. Against fighters that were busier and, perhaps, more marketable, he allowed room for his opponent to be given the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps a bit like Winky Wright in some of his losses.
I have "Starling-Brown" on tape... It was a bore.... Starling was too slick for the GREEN Simon Brown in '85..... Starling KO'd Breland in '87 and then drew with Breland on HBO in '88.... The judges were being nice to Mark Breland.... Starling was too small to tangle with Nunn in 1990 as a middleweight.... ZZZZZZZZzzzzzz.... MR.BILL:rasta
I haven't scored the Nunn fight, but I think Nunn had the edge. Those types of fights don't really have winners though. The notion that Nunn 'beat' Starling is pretty misleading. Haven't scored the Breland fight either, but I felt Mooch was winning clearly. Had Starling by three points over Brown, that was a clear cut victory. The Curry fights are both close and if Starling got the nod in either I wouldn't cry robbery. That said, I had Curry by a point in both fights. Haven't seen the Blocker fight.
Starling looked his best when he KO'd Breland in '87 and when he stopped Honeyghan in 1989 on HBO..... Peace.... I never saw the fight with Mo Blocker...... However, I always thought Blocker was a brittle welterweight with a glass-jaw..... Blocker could box, and had some speed, but no durability.... MR.BILL