So I've seen Marcel mentioned every now and then but I never got around to actually seeing his fights. I'm only now just started to watch more of Marcel lately and I'm absolutely shocked by just how much I overlooked this great operator. So far I've seen his fights with Shibata, Gomez, Arguello, and Duran. What other fights from him do you guys recommend and how great of a fighter was he? Curious to know how well he matches up against the likes of Pep and Sanchez. This guy was pretty much the prototype of great slick Panamanian boxers along with guys like Laguna, Pedroza, and Zapata. Really impressed with what I'm seeing so far.
Panama Al was probably the prototype, but looks like guys like Marcel, Pedroza, Zapata, Lujan all kind of modeled themselves after Laguna. Anyway, Marcel was a great great fighter and H2H would have a chance with any feather in history. God rest Davey Moore, but Marcel was a helluva lot better than Moore, with a deeper resume, yet Moore made the HOF this year in the Old Timer category and Marcel still isn't in.
Watch his first fight with Antonio Gomez. Its on YT. It has to be put into context, because Gomez was a superb fighter himself - one of the best Venezuela ever produced. Marcel whitewashes him for 15 rounds. Pay no attention to the "majority decision". It was as much a majority decision as Mayweather-Canelo.
Did he? He fought evenly and was controversially stopped vs someone who'd go on to be the best LW, and fighter IMO, of all time.
I’m obviously fucking around. Tremendous fighter. I do think he’s enjoying his Mike McCallum revisionist period on certain forums, but it what it is. It’s a hell of a lot better than a fighter of his quality continuing to fall under the radar.
At least McCallum is in the HOF and gets the respect he deserves (get's too much respect, but I digress).
I actually saw his title defense against Shig Nemoto. It was televised in my area back in '73 as a double-header along with Duran defending his title against Ishimatsu Suzuki. The Duran fight has surfaced but unfortunately, the Marcel fight has not. I thought he was dazzling, albeit against a very short opponent. But I saw a beautiful boxer with a sharp (not hard) punch who could really use the ring. Would love to see this again.
Marcel wasn't a big puncher, but he was a spiteful puncher. I wish his rematch with Gomez would surface - he stopped Gomez in the rematch. Not sure if the film exists.
I call it “the Mike McCallum effect” any time this happens with previously underrated fighters who finally get their time in the sun. He’s my default example, not a direct comparison. Like I said, I much prefer it to the alternative where these fighters never get their just dues.
There's DEFINITELY examples of underrated fighters who get so much time in the sun that they become overrated. I'm not sure Marcel has reached that point yet, because until now, ESB was literally the only place on the net where he gets discussed. But yeah, let's just be happy that he gets talked about at all.
How much weight do you guys put on the Duran fight? Is it a great win for Duran? Was Marcel just green (presumably Duran in 1970 can be considered pretty green himself at 19)? Does it have much bearing on either fighter's legacy?
For me, not really. Although if it did have a big affect on their legacies, it'd Duran's second best win IMO. He's the second best fighter Duran beat IMO, just not at the time he beat him. But ultimately, they were both too green for that win to mean much IMO. Bullshit stoppage, no bearing on Marcel's chin. I actually find it quite mental just how much greater Duran could actually be. If he'd have gotten Arguello, Benitez (when Wil fought Curry), Pryor and Cervantes in the ring, he'd have beaten all of them (IMO, of course) and would be even higher on P4P lists.
Great win for Duran. I thought the stoppage was BS, but he was on his way to a clear decision win. It was a very close fight for about 7 rounds, and then Duran took over. I don’t hold it against Marcel all that much.
