Tell me about Marlon Starling´s skill level !!

He tried a bit too hard to be a poor man's Wimpy Halstead, for my taste.

 

Very good defensively, probably a shade below Donald Curry in overall skillset, but over Milton McCrory.

 

He is one of those fighters that rides the fine line of being very good or great.

Good defensively, good chin, decent offense, and just an all around difficult person to fight.

I thought he deserved the decision in Mark Breland rematch.

 

I grew up watching him and always liked the man myself, both personaility wise and in the ring. When it came to the peek a boo defense, he was one of the better small men to utilize it and always showed up in sculpted condition. He had a cute style, could pick guys apart with his jab and while he wasn't a big hitter, certainly forced a fair number of late stoppages. I once saw him KO Breland and give a good account of himself in the rematch.. His controlled and picture perfect domination of Lloyd Honeyghan, was one of my most memorable childhood viewings of a boxing match.. I was both shocked and disapointed when he lost to Thomas Molinarez, in probably the most controversial match of 1988.. Marlon was handing him his ass, when Molinarez launched a huge shot just after the bell to end the 6th round sounded. Starling went down, sprained his ankle and lost his title... No rematch ever occurred.. Starling was one of the best welterweights of a very competitive era for the division, and while he's not remembered by many, will always be appreciated by the select few who followed his career closely.

 

Here is a clip from the Lloyd Honeyghan fight that I was talking about..

I thought that this was one of the better performances that I saw of him.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERZ44F6HkaY[/ame]

 

One of the greatest defensive fighters I've ever seen. But his offense suffered because of it. He seemed more concerned with not being hit than really going after the other guy.

I remember Ray Leonard made this comment about Starling in an interview: "I don't know what's the matter with Marlon. He has so much talent." I agreed. He was a bit of a headcase. He was like Wilfred Benitez in that he had so much talent, but he KNEW it and took it for granted. Didn't really use it to its fullest extent.

He was pretty unpopular amongst his contemporaries. Always disparaging them. But not in the Ali or James Toney let's- build-up-interest-and-make-money style. No, this was more dismissive and personal. Even the usually-gentlemanly Mark Breland was moved to comment "What can I say? The man is an a**hole." Lloyd Honeyghan made similar charges and I'm sure Simon Brown didn't appreciate the dismissive comments Marlon made about his abilities after one of his more impressive showings. Starling was arrogant and smug.

To be fair, Marlon really let it fly vs Maurice Blocker. Fought with a fire I'd rarely seen in him and then got robbed(I thought so anyway). He retired shortly afterward. After finally going all-out he was brought up short anyway. I didn't blame him for retiring.

 

He was a world class counter-puncher. The Honeyghan fight is a blueprint for anyone wishing to learn counter-punching. Held great wins over Simon Brown, Tommy Aers and annhilated Jose 'the threat' Baret, who was being groomed to be the next big thing. After Starling done him in they started calling him Jose 'not yet' or 'no sweat' Baret. Unfortunately, with that counter-punching style he neede a bit of fire under him to get him to initiate. If he did, that would have been one bad dude.

Scartissue

 

What? He talked too much. What does that have to do with talent and accomplishments? He usually could back up the talk, whereas Halstead, well he sucked. Starling fought competively with a very prime Curry and a prime Michael Nunn. He destroyed Honeyghan, who was, by the way, even more arrogant than Starling. He flattened the over hyped Breland. Then, most observers thought he won the rematch, called a draw. Style wise, he had the drawback of laying back a bit too much. If a fighter moved and boxed, Marlon usually was not aggressive or busy enough. This showed in the Johnny Bumpus fight, where Marlon should have Ko'd the shaky legged Bumphus, but just didn't go after him. It was still a controversial loss, as Lous Duva knew Bumpus was ahead (they had experimental open scoring) so he didn't really try to fix Bumpus's cut, so Johnny won a technical decision. But, when a fighter was aggressive, and came forward, Marlon could pick apart very good fighters who employed this style - Lupe Acquino, Simon Brown, Kevin Howard, Honeyghan, Tommy Ayers. Marlon's defense and counterpunching skills were exquisite.

I think he was a bit crass, but I think it irritated him when he saw fighters hyped up, who he knew hadn't done much, like the overhyped and over protected Breland. Starling was never given anything, and worked his way up the hard way, and it may have affected his personality in a detrimental way, but it allowed him to fight and beat very good competition early in his career, and ultimately helped him achieve quite alot.

 

that's one of the most clinical performances of the 80's. it's up there as one of the most entertaining one-sided fights i've seen.

an impecabble counterpuncher and a defensive wizard

 

i thought he was a dissapointment from the first time I saw him on CBS fighting Don Curry with a flu. I dont know how I knew he would lose but he did. fightin a man with the flu and STILL lost! unbelievable. Marlon had no fire whatsoever. As far as his skills went, his feeble skills were enough to get him a chanpionship AFTER Curry was no longer a force in the division

 

...So...you actually took that comment seriously, then, did you? Hi...I'm Boxed Ears.

 

Beautifully put.

I watched him throughout high school and loved his artistry, particularly when he was on. That Honeyghan fight was something else. I watched it on a little black and white TV set.

 

Starling actually had a lot of good performances, that for some reason have been forgotten. My guess, is that his career was overshadowed by some of the greater stars of the 80's, but he was still awesome, no question about it...

 

I loved the man's style myself, and often wondered why he never went further ( though his accomplishments were more than admirable. ) A rematch between Starling and a more developed Simon Brown would have interesting, though I think Simon might have edged him by 1989...