‘It’s possible to be somebody’

Travon Marshall is the eldest of eight raised by his mother, Dominique Hunter, in Prince Georges’ County, Maryland. 

“Growing up wasn’t easy. I was born in Landover, Maryland, and raised by a single mother. She’s a great parent and I had a strong, loving grandmother and good uncles. All of them stepped up in those roles,” said Marshall, who is among four each in male and female siblings. 

“As the big brother, I always had the feeling and the responsibility of being an example to my younger brothers and sisters. I’m their role model and I have to do things right and set the tone to show that it’s possible to be something and to be somebody.”

Marshall initially channeled his energies into two sports – football and boxing. 

“A lot of family members were into boxing so I was always around it. I actually started out doing it in my basement with my uncle and grandfather. That’s how I got introduced to it. I went into a gym for the first time when I was 12. It was Sugar Ray Leonard’s gym. My uncle took me there,” Marshall said. 

“Other than sparring with my uncle, I had no experience. But not long after we started going, [renowned trainer] Adrian Davis had this fighter who had some experience and he had us sparring. But when I started boxing him, I put my hands on him real bad. They ended up stopping the sparring session because things didn’t go as they had planned.”

Marshall hung up the football cleats after injuring his right ankle and devoted all of his focus from using his feet to using his fists.

“I had played football and was pretty good up to that point, but I hurt my ankle ,” Marshall said. "After that, my family was like, ‘nah, we’re gonna cut that out because the sport you’re really excelling at is boxing.’”

‘The Sniper’

Marshall earned his nickname, “The Sniper,” for his punishing accuracy.

“I had my first amateur fight a couple of months after that when I was still 12 years old. I didn’t win any national tournaments, but I won maybe four or five local tournaments – some in North Carolina,” Marshall said. 

“We were sparring in different areas, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh. I caught a guy with a right hand and it was so fast, he just dropped,” said Marshall, a 6-foot boxer-puncher.  “I was still an amateur. I wasn’t even trying to turn it over, but it was so sharp and precise that my trainer, Andrew Council, called me ‘The Sniper.’”

Marshall got the most out of an amateur record of 48-12.

“I never had the Olympic dream. My trainer, Andrew Council, was a former contender as a pro, and he didn’t think I needed all of those amateur fights. There’s a maturity about me that came from the teachings of Andrew Council,” Marshall said. 

“He’s all about living the lifestyle, taught me to believe in myself and my defense, and helped me to eliminate a lot of unnecessary movements. We believe that it’s all on the fighter’s hard work and dedication. It was all on me after that.”

Council is effusive in his compliments for Marshall.

“Year after year I’ve watched Travon mature and become a more complete fighter with championship skills which resemble several others, like Andre Ward, Thomas Hearns and Felix Trinidad,” said Council, a former two-time middleweight title challenger. 

“Travon uses his jab like Ward and Hearns. Travon has other traits similar to Hearns, being a slender bullying type. “Travon throws a right hand body shot and the right uppercut like Sugar Ray Leonard.  Like Trinidad, Travon can inflict a lot of power punches with either hand.”

Marshall’s 33-second professional debut in April 2021 ended with a vicious right uppercut to the solar plexis that permanently floored an on-coming Christian Marron, who out-weighed the winner, 156 ¾ to 152 ¼. Marshall scored a second-round knockdown in his next bout that June against Ruben Torres, who entered at 4-1 (1 KO) before losing by four-round unanimous decision.

In the fall of 2021, Marshall registered KOs in the second and fourth rounds over Maycon Oller Da Silva in September and Brian Jones in December. Da Silva failed to rise from his backside following a head-popping right uppercut in the second, Jones was battered into submission as the referee stopped the fight at 2:18 of the final round. 

A pair of southpaws fell at the hands of Marshall in 2022, the first being previously unbeaten Timothy Parks via second-round knockout in March and the second Marcus Washington in the sixth in June. 

The 6-foot Parks entered at 3-0 (2 KOs) before succumbing to a bout-ending right hand at the 1:24 mark. Washington was 5-3 (2 KOs) prior to being pinned in a neutral corner, and, ultimately, punished and floored by a blistering seven-punch combination.

“My first four or five fights were by stoppages, so I’ve always sat down on my punches, even as an amateur,” Marshall said. “But now, I’m actually breaking my opponents down, creating separation, setting up my punches.”

On January 7, 2023, Marshall scored a devastating first round stoppage win over Shawn West at Captiol One Arena in Washington, D.C. However, on August 12, 2023, he suffered a serious setback as he was stopped by Gabriel Maestre in two rounds.