During his career, Marcano won the
WBA and lineal super featherweight titles. Marcano challenged for the WBA title on July 29, 1971, against
Hiroshi Kobayashi. The fight took place in Japan—the home country of the champion. Marcano won the fight with a tenth round
technical knockout. After becoming champion, Marcano returned to Venezuela to make his first defence, against the Japanese challenger Kenji Iwata, Marcano once again won with a knockout. It was to be the only defence of his title, as he lost a
unanimous decision to
Ben Villaflor in his next fight. After the fight Marcano went undefeated until September 1974, when he unsuccessfully challenged
Bobby Chacon for the vacant
WBC featherweight title—the fight ended in the ninth round with Chacon scoring a knockout. In March 1975 he was knocked out again, this time by
Art Hafey, in what was to be his final fight. Maracano died in April 2009 at the age of 62. ==See also==