Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Marcel Thil ( May 25, 1904 - August 14, 1968) was
a France|French world champion boxer.

Born in Saint-Dizier, Haute-Marne in the
Champagne-Ardenne|Champagne-Ardenne Region of
France, Marcel Thil started boxing at a very young
age and turned professional at the age of sixteen.
For a number of years he was a journeyman boxer
but as he matured to full adult strength, with
training he developed power in both hands that saw
him begin to win regularly by knockout.

In 1928, Thil won the French middleweight boxing
championship and the following year captured the
European title. After losing his European
championship he came back to capture the
International Boxing Union (IBU) world
middleweight championship through a controversial
eleventh round disqualification in a June 11, 1932
fight held in Paris, France. He became a major
celebrity and as a good friend of celebrated actor
Jean Gabin, he was the toast of Paris during the
next four and a half years when he successfully
defended his Middleweight title on nine occasions.
In addition, Thil moved up a weight class to win
the European light-heavyweight title. 

On September 23, 1937 in New York City Marcel Thil
lost a non-title fight to Fred Apostoli when the
fight had to be stopped after he suffered a severe
gash over one eye. At thirty-three years of age,
Thil chose to retire. In his career, he had fought
148  times, winning 113 of them with 54 via
knockout. He lost 22 fights and fought to a draw
on 13 occasions.

Thil remained active in boxing circles as an
advisor and cornerman and was named honorary
president of the Dieppe Boxing Club. He made a
living with a company in Reims until eventually
retiring to a home in Cannes on the French Riviera
where in 1968 he died after being seriously
injured in an automobile accident. He is buried
there in the Grand Jas Cemetery.

Marcel Thil was posthumously inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame at Canastota,
New York in the United States. In France, a street
was named in his honor in his birthplace of
Saint-Dizier and in the city of Reims, both a
street and a sports stadium carry his name.