Terry Marsh (boxer)

Early life

Marsh was born in Stepney, East London, where he grew up in a small terraced house with his parents and three brothers. Marsh, who was a junior chess champion, began boxing as a youth at the St George's Club in Stepney before the family moved to Basildon in Essex. Marsh attended Westminster City School between 1969 -1971.

Before he became a professional boxer, Marsh was a Royal Marine who served in Cyprus and in Crossmaglen in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He later became a firefighter with the Essex County Fire & Rescue Service, serving on White Watch, Tilbury.

Amateur career

As an amateur Marsh won three senior national titles whilst representing the Royal Navy boxing team. Marsh's first title came in 1978 in the lightweight division beating Edmund Gajny in the final. The following year Marsh moved up to the light welterweight division and again reached the final but was this time defeated by Eddie Copeland. In 1980, Marsh again moved up a weight, to welterweight, and again reached the final, defeating Edward Byrne. 1981 saw Marsh's final year as an amateur: this year he remained at welterweight and again reached the final, his fourth in a row. In the 67 kg final, he defeated the future British, Commonwealth and WBO champion Chris Pyatt to win his third senior title.

Professional career

He had his first professional fight in October 1981, defeating Andrew DaCosta on points over six rounds, in Bloomsbury, London.

In his thirteenth fight he won the vacant Southern Area Light-Welterweight Title, defeating Vernon Vanriel on points over ten rounds, at York Hall in Bethnal Green.

In September 1984, he defeated Clinton McKenzie to take the British Light-Welterweight Title. The fight was at the Britannia Leisure Centre, Shoreditch, and Marsh won on points over twelve rounds.

In October 1985, he fought the Italian, Alessandro Scapecchi for the vacant European Light-Welterweight Title. The bout was held in Monte Carlo and Marsh won by a knock out in the seventh round.

He successfully defended his European title against Tusikoleta Nkalankete (French) in January 1986, and Francesco Prezioso (Italy) in April 1986.

On 4 March 1987, he fought the American, Joe Manley for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Light-Welterweight title. The fight was at his home town of Basildon, and Marsh won on a technical knockout in the tenth round.

On 1 July 1987, he defended his IBF title against Japanese fighter, Akio Kameda at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington. Marsh won, what was to be his last fight, by a technical knockout in the seventh round.

He then retired as undefeated IBF world champion. In September 1987 he announced that he had epilepsy, which came as a surprise to his manager Frank Warren, who read about it in the newspaper.

He took up chessboxing at the age 56 winning the World Chessboxing association welterweight title against Dymer Agasaryan from Armenia.

The shooting of Frank Warren

On 30 November 1989, Warren was to attend one of his boxing promotions at The Broadway theatre in Barking which featured Colin McMillan. As he arrived at the venue he was approached by a masked gunman who appeared from the crowd and shot him twice in the chest with .22 bullets from a Luger pistol at close range. The gunman fled and Warren was taken to hospital. Warren lost half a lung and was in great pain after the shooting.

The business style of Warren had made him enemies, and following his shooting there were a number of suspects. The ongoing libel case between Marsh and Warren led police to believe Marsh had a strong personal motive to undertake the attack due to the bad blood between the pair.

During a search of Marsh's home police found ammunition in his possession, but this was explained by Marsh's previous career as a Marine and it did not match the bullets used in the attack. Two months after the shooting and despite the lack of forensic evidence, Marsh was charged with the attempted murder of Frank Warren and was remanded in custody.

During the trial a prison confession was used against Marsh. Marsh did not appear in the witness box to give evidence. He was subsequently acquitted.

Personal

Marsh retired in December 1987 after he was diagnosed as having epilepsy. In the late 1980s, the Terry Marsh Leisure Centre in Pitsea, Essex was named in his honour. However, subsequent squabbles between local councillors have seen this renamed the Eversley Leisure Centre, although the plaque bearing his image remains.

Since then, Marsh has attempted to enter politics, first for the Labour Party. However, when Labour announced they would have a female-only short-list for Basildon, he stood for the Liberal Democrats at the 1997 General Election, but was forced to withdraw from the contest, as he was charged with fraud and deception for allegedly having fraudulently claimed two student grants after going back to university at the end of his boxing career. He was later cleared of the offence. In 2009, he set up a new political party, NOTA, which stands for "None of the Above".

He had an acting role in the 1989 film Tank Malling, and has since written and published his autobiography, Undefeated.

Following his retirement from boxing Marsh became a stockbroker.

2010 general election

In 2010, Marsh became a candidate in that year's general election as an independent candidate in the seat of South Basildon and East Thurrock. Marsh changed his name by deed poll to "None Of The Above X" as a protest against there being no option to select "None of the above" as a selection in the election. Under UK law, a political party cannot call itself "None of the Above", but there is nothing banning people called "None of the Above". Marsh, or Mr. X as he is now legally known, has said that if he won the seat he would not take his seat in parliament.

Amateur achievements