A Boxing Memory: Mark Breland

A Boxing Memory: Mark Breland

The boxing fan of the modern era probably only knows Mark Breland for his association with Deontay Wilder, and more specifically, the manner in which he was unceremoniously sacked as his trainer for simply doing the right thing. But the career of Breland is more than that. Much more.

Breland turned professional with much fanfare in 1984. The American won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games and astonishingly only lost one fight in an amateur career where he was a five-time New York Golden Gloves champion. Turning professional with a quite incredible 110-1 resume made Breland one of the most highly-touted prospects in the history of the sport.

Emanuel Steward once said of Breland. “He was maybe the best all-round young fighter I ever saw.

Even before his amateur career ended, Breland had tried his hand at acting and won critical acclaim for his performance in the 1983 movie The Lords of Discipline and further roles included a couple of appearances on Miami Vice. He called acting “a shady business,” but his first love was even more shady.

But shady or not, boxing was what Breland did best. Only Darryl Anthony beat him as an amateur, and he can quite rightfully be considered one of the greatest amateur fighters that has ever lived. Breland started boxing when he was only thirteen, and just five years later, he was turning down lucrative offers to turn professional. When he secured gold in Los Angeles, Breland finally made the jump to the professional ranks with comparisons to Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard. In truth, nobody could deliver on plaudits on that grand scale, and Breland definitely suffered as a result. Whatever he achieved as a pro was always likely to be a disappointment to many. The New York Times said, “No one is quite sure yet whether Breland will be a superstar or flop.” Not thinking or caring that he might be somewhere in between. Which was how it turned out.

Breland was indeed a potential superstar, the shining light of that ultra-talented American team that won a plethora of medals at those 1984 Olympic Games. Paul Gonzales, Steve McCrory, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, Jerry Page, Frank Tate, Henry Tillman, Tyrell Biggs and Breland all won gold medals. Breland signed a million-dollar promotional contract with Dan Duva’s Main Events and headlined a card on his professional debut that included fellow Olympians, Taylor, Whitaker, and Biggs. Evander Holyfield, who only won bronze in LA, also featured on the show that was shown on ABC.

Breland won world titles and only lost three times as a professional, but yet didn’t come close to matching the heights that were expected of him after that stellar amateur career that included seventy-three knockouts in those one hundred and ten victories. Breland went 16-0 in his first three years as a pro, including reversing his only amateur defeat, beating Darryl Anthony in three rounds in 1986. Breland captured the vacant WBA welterweight title in 1987 with a 7th-round win over the South African Harold Volbrecht, but it was hardly a performance of a potential superstar. Breland suffered his first reversal as a professional in his first defence of his WBA title when a mile ahead on points, Marlon Starling stopped him in the 11th round. The 6-foot-2 champion got what Boxing News described as a ‘tough education’ from the more seasoned and battle-hardened Starling. Breland got a rematch with Starling in 1988 but could only manage a disputed draw. Many considered Breland fortunate to escape with a draw.

There was a second run as a world champion for Breland when the following year, he stopped the South Korean fighter Seung Soon Lee inside a round in Las Vegas. Breland defended his WBA bauble four times, including dismantling a badly faded Lloyd Honeyghan in 1990. Honeyghan was booed by his London faithful for his poor display as Breland took him apart in three desperately one-sided rounds. But later that year, Aaron Davis viciously ended Breland’s reign, stopping him nine rounds. Sadly for Breland, the glory days were over.

But despite calls for Breland to retire he kept fighting, hooked up with Emanuel Steward, moved up to light-middleweight and won three fights in 1991 but when the former world welterweight champion Jorge Vaca stopped him in six rounds in Sacramento, Breland who was only 28, called time on his career.

“I didn’t want to go out the way I did in ’91,” Breland said when he announced his comeback in 1996. The return consisted of five wins but ended in 1997 when he had to climb off the floor twice in the 10th and final round to beat the ordinary Rick Haynes, who came into the fight with a 5-14-2 record. Breland decided enough was enough and wisely never fought again, leaving the sport with a 35-3-1 resume.

People will judge Breland a little harshly, especially with the hype around him at the start of his professional career, but as Breland told Boxing News in 2019:

“People say: ‘You should have done more, Mark.’ But they couldn’t do what I did. I don’t have regrets. I did everything I set out to do. I won five New York Golden Gloves titles and the Olympics and was a world champion in the pros twice. “How many people can say that?”