British Boxer Marianne Marston Strikes Gold With New Sponsorship Deal

© Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

American trained English super bantamweight Marianne ‘Golden Girl’ Marston will be spearheading London based sporting equipment and apparel manufacturer P.U.G. Athletic’s planned 2009 assault on the $50 billion American sporting goods market in.

Marston, a protégé of former heavyweight champion of the world Smokin’ Joe Frazier and former cruiserweight world champion Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham, was previously sponsored by P.U.G. Athletic prior to her moving her training base, from Gleason’s Gym London to Smokin’ Joe Frazier’s Philadelphia gym, where she was under the personal tutelage of the legendary heavyweight champ and his son Marvis.

Marston’s American adventure soon became a roller coaster ride as Frazier’s gym shut down operations just two months later.

Marston then moved to the James Shuler Memorial Gym in West Philadelphia, initially working with former junior middleweight world champion Robert ‘Bam Bam’ Hines before switching to the exceptional female trainer, Shar’ron Baker.

Around the same time, P.U.G. Athletic, who were concentrating on the European sporting goods market, decided not to renew their sponsorship arrangement as Marston would be initially competing in America.

Just as disaster loomed again for Marianne, up stepped cruiserweight king Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham and his wife and manager Livvy, who invited Marianne to be part of Team ‘USS’ Cunningham, which includes world class coach Anthony Chase, “Trainer of the Year” contender Brother Nazeem Richardson in addition to day to day coaching from Baker.

After returning to England at the beginning of March, Marston met with P.U.G. Athletic boss John Rooney Jr. and a new sponsorship deal was arranged in record time.

Taking a moment out from her grueling preparations, a very pleased Marston said, “I’m so pleased to be working with John Rooney and P.U.G. Athletic again. John has always been a great supporter of boxing. He used to sponsor my hero, Joe Calzaghe, and supports other great champions like Ian Napa and Danny Williams.

“It’s so exciting to be involved in their expansion plans, to say I am proud to be a P.U.G. fighter is an understatement. I’m a great believer in their products. Over the past year I have tried out loads of gloves and couldn’t find any that came close to my old ones. I kept having niggly hand injuries so I got a friend of mine to send me over a new pair of P.U.G.’s late last year and hey, presto, no more problems. They really do offer the best hand protection!

“Whilst I’m enjoying being back in London and training at Gleason’s, I’m really looking forward to getting back to Philly so I can be fully prepared for my fight.

“I’m missing everyone at Shulers terribly. I missed Tyson’s [Jamaal’s ‘Da Truth’ Davis] and Eddie’s [‘Fast’ Eddie Chambers] fights and missed even more not being there to celebrate their victories with them. I’m also going to miss Gee’s [Culmer] fight this Friday.

“Whilst he’s not one of my gym mates, I’m desperately hoping I can get my visa through soon so I can be there to support fellow Brit Carl Froch when he takes on Jermain Taylor on the 25th of April. If I do, I’ll be ringside for sure, what a great way to prepare for my fight, watching awesome fighters at close quarters. Who knows, I might steal some of his moves and use them in my fight in May.”

Marston’s professional debut will be on the undercard of Philadelphia’s Brian Cohen’s WBC Americas Light Heavyweight title fight on May 9, 2009 at the South Philadelphia High School. The co-feature will be headed by Gabrielle Rosado and there will be seven undercard fights on the night. Promoter Ivan Cohen will announce full details of the card shortly.

For tickets and further details for the event contact Ivan Cohen at 215 755 8155.