Marion 'Marty' Marshall (born in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, December 24 1923 – 25 October 2004) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional
boxerBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
who fought at
Light heavyweightIn boxing, the light heavyweight division is the weight division between cruiserweight and super middleweight...
and
HeavyweightHeavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Organization, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...
. Nicknamed "the Michigan Bomber", Marshall was active during the 1940s and 1950s. His most famous fight was against the emerging
Sonny ListonCharles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round. Liston was one of the most powerful punchers and jabbers in the history of boxing...
on September 7, 1954, in which Marshall broke Liston's jaw and won by a
split decisionA Split Decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking in which two of the three judges score for the same fighter as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other...
, in what was Liston's only defeat until he fought
Cassius ClayMuhammad Ali is a retired American boxer and three-time World Heavyweight Champion, who is widely considered one of the greatest heavyweight champions. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome...
ten years later.
Marion 'Marty' Marshall (born in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, December 24 1923 – 25 October 2004) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional
boxerBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
who fought at
Light heavyweightIn boxing, the light heavyweight division is the weight division between cruiserweight and super middleweight...
and
HeavyweightHeavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Organization, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...
. Nicknamed "the Michigan Bomber", Marshall was active during the 1940s and 1950s. His most famous fight was against the emerging
Sonny ListonCharles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round. Liston was one of the most powerful punchers and jabbers in the history of boxing...
on September 7, 1954, in which Marshall broke Liston's jaw and won by a
split decisionA Split Decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking in which two of the three judges score for the same fighter as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other...
, in what was Liston's only defeat until he fought
Cassius ClayMuhammad Ali is a retired American boxer and three-time World Heavyweight Champion, who is widely considered one of the greatest heavyweight champions. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome...
ten years later. He would appear on a fall 1962 episode of the television program
I've Got A SecretI've Got a Secret is a weekly panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?. The original version of the show premiered on June 19, 1952...
as a result of his earlier decision over Liston; in this appearance, he was prescient enough to say that Clay could beat Liston, "with the right training".
He met Liston twice more after that, losing by a
technical knockoutA knockout is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...
in 1955 and a
unanimous decisionA unanimous decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking in which all three judges agree on which fighter won the match....
in 1956. He also fought future world light-heavyweight champion
Harold JohnsonHarold Johnson was a professional boxer.Johnson won his first twenty four fights before losing a ten round decision to Archie Moore, who would be Johnson's biggest career rival...
, losing on points.
Marshall retired from boxing in 1959 with a record of 23 wins (11 by knockout), 13 losses and 2 draws.