Matthew Marsh (born 1 August 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2010. He held the British super bantamweight title in 2008 and challenged once for the vacant Commonwealth super bantamweight title in 2010. As an amateur, he won two

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championships, one at flyweight in 2001 and the other at bantamweight in 2004.

Professional career

Early career

Marsh begun his professional career in September 2004 with a win over Freddy James at the

York Hall The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex in Bethnal Green, London, and is situated on Old Ford Road. The building opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200 and is now an inter ...

in Bethnal Green. By December 2006 he had compiled a winning ledger of 6–0 with wins over the likes of Welshman Dai Davies and French

journeyman A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that f ...

Frederic Gosset, and had earned a crack at the Southern Area

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

championship. He challenged reigning champion

Rocky Dean Rocky Dean (born 17 June 1978) is a British professional boxer from Thetford in Norfolk, England. He is a former Southern Area champion at Featherweight and has twice competed for the full British title at Super Bantamweight. Early Profession ...

at the Excel Arena in the

London Docklands London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port o ...

and won a 10-round decision. The two fighters met again in July 2007 this time for the super bantamweight version of the same belt. Going into the second match up Dean was confident saying ''"I am faster and fitter, and I am twice the fighter I was when I last met Marsh...Last time we met, I gave him the first four rounds. That will not happen again"''. It was not to be however and Marsh won another 10-round decision which meant that he now held the southern area title at two different weights.Boxrec Professional boxing record Matthew Marsh
Retrieved 24 October 2008.

Defeat to Mathews

Following the back to back wins over Rocky Dean, Marsh once again stepped up to featherweight to box the current holder of the

WBU The World Boxing Union (WBU) was a boxing sanctioning body. The original WBU was founded in January 1995 by IBF European representative, boxing journalist, actor and former holder of the title of Britain's heaviest man Jon W. Robinson. It san ...

title

Derry Mathews Derry Mathews (born 23 September 1983) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2017. He held the WBA interim lightweight title in 2015 and has challenged, twice, for lightweight world championships, the WBO title in 20 ...

. Mathews was himself a former

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. Bra ...

champion, winning the title in 2002 two years before Marsh would pick up the same crown. The fight in October 2007 ended with a first defeat for Marsh with the step up in class proving a bit too much when the fight was stopped in the 11th round. It was the first time Marsh had been taken beyond 10 rounds and observers noted that the fatigue was beginning to show as he struggled into the later stages.

British champion

Marsh responded to his first career defeat in style, knocking out

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fighter Ajibu Salum in the first round of his next bout. The knockout was significant in that it was the first time in his fledgling career that Marsh has stopped an opponent. In June 2008 Marsh met the current British

super bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanctioning organizations o ...

champion

Esham Pickering Esham Pickering (born 7 August 1976) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2014. He challenged once for the WBO bantamweight title in 2000. At regional level, he held the British super bantamweight title twice betwee ...

and won a unanimous points decision over 12 rounds. Pickering, a former European champion at the weight, was confident going into the bout saying ''"I just think I will blow him away, I can beat him in every department."'' Marsh however was dominant from the first bell landing the most punches and being generally busier. Marsh made the first defence of his new title against the man he had already beaten twice,

, at the

on 21 November 2008. The fight ended with a majority decision for the champion handing Marsh his third win over Dean. Marsh had been due to defend his title for the second time on 17 April 2009 against English champion Mark Moran however he struggled to make the super bantamweight weight limit and was forced to vacate the title.

Jason Booth Jason Booth (born 7 November 1977) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2016. He held the IBO super-flyweight title from 2003 to 2004, and challenged once for the IBF super bantamweight title in 2010. At regional leve ...

, the reigning Commonwealth bantamweight champion stepped in and defeated Moran with a win in the sixth round.

Route back to contention

Following a break from boxing Marsh returned to action on 18 September 2009 to fight Josh Wale for the vacant English super bantamweight crown. Despite winning the fight Marsh was unable to claim the belt as he once again failed to make the weight limit after weighing in six ounces over. On 18 December 2009 Marsh beat Marc Callaghan over six rounds at the York Hall and on 5 February 2010 challenged

for the British and Commonwealth titles. The fight, at the Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre in Nottingham, resulted in a second career defeat for Marsh as he failed to reclaim his old title. Booth was able to claim the Lonsdale belt outright after the fight when a cut above Marsh's right eye forced the fight to be stopped in the 11th round.Jason Booth beats Matthew Marsh to land title
''

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'', 6 February 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, Matthew English male boxers Bantamweight boxers 1982 births Living people