GUYANESE-born Canadian boxer Egerton Marcus won a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and turned professional the following year. Marcus started with a bang and on April 14, 1989 and made his debut in the House of Lords of the sport.
The Guyanese light heavyweight took one round to TKO Leroy Moore at the Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight was a preliminary on a card that featured Vinny Pazienza versus Jake Carollo.
Five years and 14 fights later Marcus suffered his first loss. The Olympic silver medallist was 30 years old when he clashed with German Henry Maske on February 11, 1995 in Frankfurt, Germany.
Both boxers were undefeated going into the bout which had the International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight title at stake.
The southpaw Maske earned his 26th professional victory when he triumphed by a unanimous decision. The Guyanese then lingered for two fights in the cruiserweight division before joining the `big boys’ in the heavyweight category.
Born in Guyana on February 2, 1965, Marcus represented Canada as a middleweight in the 1988 Olympics in South Korea. He drew a bye in round then knocked out Emmanuel Legaspi of the Philippines and Darko Dukic of Yugoslavia respectively.
Wins over Sven Ottke of West Germany and Hussain Shah Syed of Pakistan earned him a place in the final. However, Marcus was forced to take silver after Henry Maske, who represented East Germany, won the final 5-0.