Rear View Mirror – A look back at the career of ‘The Fighting Fireman’ Terry Marsh
BBN’s Caledonian columnist Donald C Stewart takes a look into his rear view mirror at the career of ‘The Fighting Fireman’ Terry Marsh
Should Frank Warren ever retire, then there is one undefeated boxer who will be unlikely to be invited to his retirement party. Given that he stood trial for attempting to murder Warren – and was acquitted – it can hardly come as a surprise that Terry Marsh, 27-0-1, 10 KO’s, will neither be welcome nor, I presume, go and give his best wishes.
Marsh fought actively in the professional ranks from 1981 to 1987. On three occasions, as a lightweight once and as a welterweight twice, he was a senior ABA champion as an amateur, representing the Royal Navy.
He never got to the Olympics despite these victories and as he told Boxing News, “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.”
It is perhaps clichéd but the Olympics’ loss… Professionally Marsh went on to British, European and IBF world honours. His pro career and his amateur career though were nothing to his life that came outside the ring including after he retired. An East London boy, there are movies about gangsters from that area that do not come close to just how bizarre things turned out for Marsh after hanging up the gloves. Outside the pro ring he had served with the Marines, in Northern Ireland, had been a junior chess champion and became a fire fighter – hence his nickname as a boxer: The Fighting Fireman. European honours carried real weight in that era, and for readers whose interest in the continent runs to gaming, we explain how European casino licences work for UK players.
His professional debut came on the 12th of October 1981 at the Bloomsbury Centre when he beat Andrew DaCosta on points over 6 rounds. His first title was the Southern Area title which he bagged on the 16th of April 1983 at York Hall taking a 10-round decision over Vernon Vanriel. It was at this point he nearly retired as he told Boxing News, “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.”
Obviously, he didn’t retire in 1984, he won the British light welterweight title beating Clinton Mackenzie on points on the 19th of September in Shoreditch when he expected to lose but pay off his overdraft!
One year on, in October 1985 he took the European title by stopping Italian Alessandro Scapecci in the 5th round in Monaco. As he told Boxing News, it was originally decent money because he was due to fight a different opponent, “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 (Patrizio Oliva, the original opponent) 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!” It was a tough fight, due to hand injury he was carrying which led to him having his gloves, unusually, being put on in the ring. The local anaesthetic he had taken prior to the fight didn’t even last as long as the national anthems, but fortunately, Scapecci had to retire with problems of his own, leaving Marsh as the new champion.
Defences of his title followed and in January 1986, he beat Tusikoleta Nalankete in the Alexandra Pavilion on points, and then in April, in the Palace Lido, Douglas he beat Francesco Prezioso on points.
Nearly two years elapsed before he took on Joe Manley for the IBF title in Basildon, winning by TKO in the 10th round on the 4th of March 1987. Never a big puncher – only 10 stoppages – Marsh spoke of how he came close to stop Manley sometime later: “The one time I came close to scoring a knockout was when I fought for the world title, and then I had to hit the guy clean [with a short left hook]. He was on his way down and falling like a tree, so I hit him twice on the way down as well, despite all that he still beat the count. So, it shows that I just could not punch. I must admit that, for me, the world title win was the winning post. I never imagined getting that far. I thought I had done well.”
If you see the fight since, then you would see he managed to hit Manley only once on the way down – perhaps his memory here is a little faulty.
What sticks with him, however, again as he said again to Boxing News, “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!’”
The next fight was his last fight.
‘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.’ The programme that night, had this eulogy from promoter Frank Warren – the man Marsh was accused of trying to kill. In the Royal Albert Hall, London he beat Japanese boxer, Akio Kameda in the 7th on the 1st of July 1987.
And so, Marsh retired: “I didn’t want to stay in boxing for long. It may sound bizarre, but I thought that the quickest way to get out of boxing was to win the title and then retire. If I had been defeated along the way I may not have retired because although the record was important to me in some senses, it was a bit of a burden as well. If I had have been beaten once, I probably would have carried on boxing past the time that I did because I would have had nothing to preserve. I was well aware that getting out undefeated is something that not a lot of fighters manage, so I knew that it would be worth so much more than one or two subsequent defences.”
It all sounds simple and clear, but it was neither.
Terry Marsh sprung a surprise. It was a surprise to many, allegedly including his promoter, Frank Warren, and came in September of that year when Marsh announced he had epilepsy.
It led to a first battle between fighter and promoter, where Warren lost a libel action against Marsh, “because he consented to a defamatory television programme being broadcast.” Warren had given Thames Television permission to broadcast an interview which implied he allowed Marsh to sign a contract for a fight knowing he was suffering from epilepsy. He since denied he knew. Marsh has spoken of how people who needed to know, knew. That means he must have fought with a pre-existing condition that was highly dangerous.
Surprise though seems to have been his guiding principle once he had finally stepped out of the ring. But let us go to the most shocking event in British boxing’s history; the shooting of Frank Warren.
It happened on the 30th of November 1989. Warren was shot twice in the chest on his way into a venue for a boxing promotion, he obviously survived but lost half of one of his lungs. At the time there was a libel case happening between Warren and Terry Marsh. Marsh instantly became one of many suspects.
It’s a vivid memory for Marsh, “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.”
Marsh had ammunition in his flat, but he was an ex-Marine, and it did not match the gun used. Despite a lack of evidence, Marsh was put on trial. Ther was an alleged confession from prison, and this confession was used in the trial. Marsh refused to take the stand the was acquitted.
Perhaps due to what happened to him, Marsh found a new career – politics.
He joined the Labour Party, then when they wanted an all-female list for the seat he wanted to stand for, he became a Liberal Democrat and stood for them. Or at least he would have had he not had to withdraw because he was charged with fraud, allegedly having claimed two student grants at the end of his boxing career but again he was cleared at court.
He was back in court in 2007 when he managed to successfully win damages against security at a British railway station. Marsh had been assaulted in a tube station and thrown to the ground. Marsh managed to ride out the blows, clinched, and then beat up his assailants using “legal means”. He went on to win damages.
In 2010 was once more in politics, standing for election and he had founded his own political party, having changed his name to None Of The Above in protest that people in UK elections are not allowed to tick a box that eschews making a choice – they can of course spoil the ballot paper which is the same thing. Elections attract odds as well as votes, and our guide to UK general election betting runs through the bookmakers covering those contests.
It’s an interesting post-fight career which also included spending time as a bookmaker (though not taking bets from Mickey Duff apparently), had some acting work, learnt to speak Italian “out of sheer boredom” and won the World Chess boxing Association welterweight title, beating Armenian Dymer Agasaryan in the final.
In court his record is almost as colourful as his boxing career, having lost an appeal after he was ordered to pay a £600 fine, £100 compensation, £620 prosecution costs and a £60 victim surcharge – totalling £1,380 due to an assault in a voting station at election time. He had assaulted an electoral officer kneeing a Mr Sayonas in the groin after being detained at the polling station against his will for 25 minutes.
He of course wrote his own autobiography – called Undefeated as a “platform for my story. It was a good chance to get my version of events out there but saying that I did take it as far as it could go. As I mention in the book it is all about proof, not truth, so it is not the whole truth but everything (that is) in there I approve of right now.”
And his pudding, he hopes is proof of a narrative he can defend, like he did all is titles in the ring.
