One title reign thats been forgotten by history is Lloyd Marshalls. Various sources say he won the vacant duration title over Bolden in January 1944 and that and his loss to Bivins are the only duration title fights that are widely acknowledged. But per the source linked below the NBA recognized him as champ after beating Sheppard in July 1943. Furthermore before losing to Bivins, boxerlist has his previous fight against Christophoridis listed as a "duration light heavyweight title fight". Given that Bivins v Marshall was Bivins final LHW fight and he'd been fighting at HW since holding both belts so maybe Bivins wasn't expected to return? This would also explain Marshall being crowned so a mere 6 weeks after his loss Bivins. HW had multiple duration claimants(as I inquired about in another thread) and Marshall had just matched Bivins two wins over Christophoridis and Charles. The following May Marshall was still considered Duration champ when he fought undefeated Joe Kahut. Filtering through MW fights this would have been Marshalls 3rd title defense after Bolden and Garner. A fight with Joey Maxim in July would have been his 4th defense if Maxim didn't come in 13 pounds overweight. Marshall almost knocked Maxim out. September 30th is the last time on boxer rec Marshalls title is acknowledged despite fighting at MW against Jack Chase. Fall 1944 is pretty consistant with the end of the duration title era and either way Marshall would not fight at LHW again until losing to Archie Moore. But thats a nifty little title run there. https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Lloyd_Marshall_vs._Curtis_Sheppard https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Lloyd_Marshall_vs._Joe_Kahut https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Jack_Chase_vs._Lloyd_Marshall_(3rd_meeting) https://boxerlist.com/en/boxer/lloyd-marshall/112 Also per boxerlist Lloyd Marshalls July 11th MW loss to Holman Wiliams was the first of 4 duration title fights in that division. Interesting trivia is during this period not only did Marshall beat 3/4s of the Duration LHW tournament from 1942-1943(and almost beat Bivins) he also beat 3/4s of the 1948-1949 HW tournament to decide who'd fight Walcott for Joe Louis's title. He'd later go on to beat Tommy Farr and Freddie Mills. When you factor in the 6 MW champs, Burley and Jack Chase Marshalls got an incrediblely unique resume. His reign deserves to be remembered.
he is an ATG deserving of a serious well written & researched biography. he is fit for any MW & L-HW in History and better than most of them... I'd say I admire him more than any other fighter, he Was RJJ long before Jones was ever even heard of and there is enough good film footage to clearly see that!
Thats a really good comparison. B Hop is the would be Archie Moore in Roys case. Makes you wonder how things would have been different if Hopkins was at 175 the whole time or if Tarver started earlier. RJJs competition really got good at the end there. Marshall would have beaten Bivins if he was anything short of his absolute best.
