TERRY MARSH had over 200 fights as an amateur and before leaving his teenage years behind him. He had already amassed two Junior ABA titles, became National Schoolboy champion and NABC champion. However, outside of the ring he was at a crossroads.
“In 1978, I was standing on a train having paid what I thought was a lot of money for a seat going back and forth to London and I looked over someone’s shoulder and there was an advert for throwing the gauntlet down for the green beret. I thought to myself, ‘I’m not too keen on this commuting lark,’ so I took up the challenge to become a Royal Marine.”
Marsh was a serving officer for four years, which included six months in Crossmaglen, Northern Ireland, and six months in Cyprus with the United Nations. Whilst serving, he won three senior ABA titles as part of the Royal Navy Boxing team. His first victory in 1978 came at lightweight, beating Edmund Gajny, followed by a move up to welterweight in 1980, defeating Eddie Byrne and finally, a victory against future world champion, Chris Pyatt, in 1981.
Instead of focusing on his title successes, Marsh chose to talk about the competition he didn’t win. “The year that wasn’t mentioned was 1979, when I lost against Eddie Copeland in the ABA finals in London. I remember the first two minutes of the first round, but I don’t remember anything after.
“Eddie got the better of me in the first round and the referee stepped in and gave me a standing count, so I’m told. Apparently, I fought back in the later two rounds and two judges made it 59-59. You could make the argument it was a majority draw and that’s not taking anything away from Eddie, because he won. That fight taught me, that if I did get caught, I’d have reserves in the tank. My brother, who I hold in high regard, thought that was my best performance as an amateur and I’ll accept that as truth.”
Despite proving himself multiple times as one of Britain’s best boxers, Marsh’s route to the 1980 Olympics never came to fruition. “Here’s what happened. My team mate in the navy, Wayne Green, who was a good amateur, decided he wanted to fight at light welter. I said, ‘Okay. I’ll move up to welterweight,’ and that’s how I became a welterweight in the ABAs.
“I met Joey Frost in the process, who was an ABA champion and who I think also held the record for the quickest knockout, which was something like 13 seconds, including the 10 count. When it came to the draw in Gloucester in 1980 for the semi-final, I had him and my trainer, the late Tony Oxley said, ‘We got the one we want.’ I thought, ‘That ain’t the one I wanted!’
“Anyway. I had the fight with Joey and again, he caught me in the first round. I don’t have much memory of the later rounds, but I’m told I won it decisively and I went on to win the ABAs, beating Eddie Byrne. So, I’ve won the ABAs and expected to be picked for the Olympics, but that wasn’t to be.
“We were told that we had to meet Joey for a box-off. I was a bit peeved to put it mildly. It made no sense. We went ahead and had the box-off, but they were still undecided if they were going to send someone to compete at the Moscow Olympics. My interpretation of that was, ‘If Joey wins the box-off, he goes, but if I win it, I don’t.’ I decided not to do the box-off and decided to serve in Northern Ireland.”
Marsh may not have competed at the Olympics, but he did win the Multi-Nations gold medal in Manila in 1981, shortly before deciding to make the leap to the pro ranks in October 1981. After six wins in five months, Marsh took on Lloyd Christie at the Bloomsbury Centre Hotel, in a fight which turned out to be his only blemish on his pro record.
The Stepney-born fighter explained. “I know it sounds strange, but I’m glad it was a draw. I’d been sparring Chris Pyatt a couple of weeks before the fight and got a cut. I didn’t think the cut wasn’t going to be a problem fighting Lloyd, but then I got a cut! From then on. I was very negative, thinking, ‘You’ve got a cut. The fight will get stopped.’
“As a result, before the last round, the referee came to my corner and I’m assuming he went to Lloyd’s and said, ‘It’s on this round.’ As a result of being negative I almost lost the fight. After that fight I thought to myself, ‘If I ever get a cut again, I’m just going to have to go for it and fight every round like it’s the last round.’ And that’s exactly what I did.”
By 26 April 1983, Marsh took on Jamaican-born Vernon Vanriel in his first title fight for the Southern Area strap. Marsh recalled. “Our paths had crossed at the gym, down the Old Kent Road and we’d sparred. He was self-managed and when we sparred he said to me, ‘We’re not getting paid for this.’ I took that as a weakness on his part, but it wasn’t. It was actually very sensible. Why bash each other up if you’re not getting paid for it? Sparring is about learning as opposed to beating someone up. There’s nothing clever about bashing someone up.
“I went into the fight thinking it was going to be a bit easy, then somewhere around the third or fourth round, he caught me with a shot, which is something I’d never experienced before. You hear people say they felt it down to their boots – well, that was the first time I was intimate with that feeling. I thought, ‘I won’t be able to take another one of them.’ I pushed the fight, felt comfortable, worked behind my jab and was a little bit more aggressive than what I would have been and won it on points.”
In the meantime, Marsh’s career trajectories hit a few speed bumps. “I had a hand injury as a result of my fight with Vernon and that was supposed to be my final fight. I’d effectively retired, but after a Southern Area title, you don’t make a big press announcement you simply don’t fight anymore. That’s when I joined the fire brigade, which was going to be my so-called career. I’d done the boxing, it wasn’t working out financially and that was the bottom line.
“I had a blank period of about five or six months after the Vernon fight and decided to do my training and became a fireman. Somehow, I’d moved up in the rankings and was being put forward for a British title eliminator at light welter. I thought, ‘I’ve got to give it a go and it’s a good payday, against Tony Sinnott up in Bradford.’ I won that and then found myself challenging for the British [140lbs] title against Clinton McKenzie.”
Marsh recalled the clash with McKenzie on 19 September 1984. “Going into that fight I thought, ‘I’ll fight him, I’ll probably get beaten, but I’ll pay off my overdraft.’ Clinton was a southpaw and they’ve never been a problem for me, but he was durable and was never in a bad fight.” Marsh must have missed the memo about losing, because he beat McKenzie on points and in doing so became the new British champion.
By 24 October 1985, Marsh boasted a record of 19-0-1 as he took on Italian Alessandro Scapecchi for the European super-lightweight title at the Stade II, Fontvieille, Monaco. Marsh explained the rollercoaster of emotions that came with this fight.
“Prior to this, there was a fight that went to purse offers against the European champion, Patrizio Oliva, who had also won the light welterweight gold at the Moscow Olympics. I remember looking at Teletext and it said, ‘Money Man Marsh.’ There had been a £70,000 purse bid for the Oliva fight.
“As the challenger, I was going to get 40%, which worked out to be 28 grand, which was relatively decent money. Then it turned out that Oliva vacated the title and was fighting for a world title, which he went on to win. I was annoyed, more than anything, because I was only getting 15 grand for fighting Scappechi!
“I had a bad hand in that fight, which had been causing me all sorts of problems. I’d seen doctors and had treatment for it, but I didn’t want to pull out of the fight, because someone else would win the title and I’d have to join the queue again.
“I managed to have a local anaesthetic just before the fight, but I was told that it would only last about 15-20 minutes. I got into the ring and they put the gloves on in the ring, which made it problematic for me to get my hand inside and then do the laces and all that. Then they started the national anthems, which included the Monaco anthem, the British, the Italian and the French. By the time that lot had finished, the local anaesthetic was beginning to wear off.
“As I started to put the jab in, it was a case of, this is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you, but I just had to get on with it. Then, lo and behold, I got cut very early in the fight and there was no way I was going to last 12 rounds.
“I then started to give this theatrical rendition pretending I was so control of the fight, smiling and laughing, winking to the crowds and everything else, not giving the referee any reason to intervene. I resigned myself to losing and decided to go down fighting like every round was the last. Then in round six, he got an injury, damaged shoulder I think and it was called off. I went from hero to zero and it felt great. My hopes of fighting for a world title were actually real now.”
After five fights, which included two defences of his European strap, on 4 March 1987, Marsh took on the IBF super-lightweight champion, American Joe Manley with a strategy in place.
“I never got excited for this fight, because a year or so before I’d signed a contract to fight Patrizio Oliva for the world title. So, here I am again, getting ready to fight for a world title, but I wasn’t excited until the point I got in the ring and the bell went, because I’d lost all confidence from before from when [the Italians] had pulled the plug on me.
“I’ll tell you this story about that fight. My brother worked in a betting shop and he got a phone call from his head office and they said, ‘John. What’s your brother’s chances on this?’ He asked, ‘Why?’ They replied, ‘We’ve got someone who wants to put on about 40 grand on Manley.’ My brother said, ‘Who is it?’ They replied, ‘Mickey Duff.’ He said, ‘Take the bet!’
Marsh was a country mile ahead on the scorecards before stopping Manley in the 10th round to be crowned the new IBF super lightweight champion. Four months later, on 1 July 1987, he embarked on his first title defence, which also turned out to be Marsh’s last fight as a professional boxer against Japan’s Akio Kameda at the Royal Albert Hall. He would end his career as an unbeaten world champion with a record of 26-0-1, 10 KOs, having fought over 200 times, both as an amateur and professional.
On 30th June, promoter Frank Warren said in the programme for that night, ‘Terry and I have both come a long way since 1981 and it’s been a privilege to have been involved with such a classy man in and out of the ring. He insists this will be his last fight. Along with everyone else, I hope it’s not, but of course, if that what he wants, I will respect his decision. Either way, Let’s make it a memorable night.’
“That was true,” admitted Marsh. “I’d made my mind up, but after the fight, a carrot came along called Hector Camacho was dangled in front of me and I was hanging out for that fight, if the money was right, which was apparently going to be £500,000. It may have been pie in the sky, but I wanted the opportunity. Unfortunately it never did.”
On November 30, 1989, Marsh hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, as a primary suspect for the shooting of Warren at a boxing show in Barking, Essex. He was charged with the attempted murder of the promoter and served 10 months in prison on remand before being acquitted. Marsh talked BN through his memories of the arrest.
“I was a bit annoyed to tell you the truth. I got arrested and invited for questioning or whatever the case may be. I was arrested at an airport, but I was coming into the country, not leaving it, as opposed to how many presented it, which gave an impression that made me look like a fugitive trying to leave. It was all very dramatic from the police and I promised my daughter I’d be home at a particular time that day. How it made me feel? I was peed off, to put it mildly.”
On 13 June 2015, Marsh made his comeback to the ring, embracing two of his lifelong passions – boxing and chess. At 57, he took on the reigning World Chess Boxing Association middleweight champion, Dymer Agasaryan from Armenia. Marsh was the London Junior Schools champion in 1969. The final score was Marsh 57, Agasaryan 23.
“There’s chess and there’s chess,” explained Marsh. “You have someone who plays and has two hours on the clock to do what they are going to do, compared to someone who’s doing three minutes of chess and three minutes of boxing.
“With the chess boxing format, you don’t do the best move, you do the safest move, which is the same with boxing sometimes, where you don’t go flat out and throw all your best shots, you have to use a strategy. What is different is pacing yourself as a chess player and pacing yourself as a boxer.
“With Dymer, he was only 23 and a well-built guy, who was a junior world weightlifting champion, who used to teach chess. He was regarded as a better chess player than me, but he was more like a 100-metre sprinter, whereas I’m more like a marathon runner.
“I thought, ‘If I can get him to use them muscles and make him work, he might struggle from the cardiovascular point of view and it might make it a little bit more difficult for him to do the thinking for the chess and make mistakes. So, the strategy was to make him have a tear up to exert himself.
“I got myself in a good position in the chess and we’d done the boxing and I got back to the chessboard and I thought, ‘I’ve got the measure of him now. He’ll have a problem,’ and he did. He couldn’t think of the next move and the seconds went into minutes and he still hadn’t moved and I thought, ‘I’ve got him.’
“Then the referee came over and said, ‘Make your move.’ The reason he hadn’t made his move was because it wasn’t his move, it was my move! By this stage I’d lost about two minutes on the clock which put me in a difficult position.
“I went for the draw in the chess, which I got and then we had just one more round in the boxing, to find out who was going to win. There’s still a bit on YouTube if you want to see us having a tear up. I won the final round and won the fight. He wanted a rematch, but I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I replied, ‘Because now you can see I can’t punch!’”
Marsh hung the gloves up once again at 57, with a record of three wins, no losses, which included one victory by checkmate in round seven, one by timeout and one by points decision.
Now 67, never discount ‘The Fighting Fireman’ from another challenge.
