Ringside Report Looks Back at Former World Champion Mark Breland

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

When boxers retire and they end up being used in another capacity – most often still in the sport – we sometime forget that at some point they were boxers themselves and they had been in the four cornered ring battling out in their own careers.

It is something I realized when I reflected on an English referee a few months back and found out he had been a heavyweight. The size didn’t faze me, but his record certainly did! Context can be king and when you hear of disputes in camps it is all too easy to credit the current pugilist and dismiss the entourage.

When the fall out of who threw the towel in when and why of the second Fury/Wilder fight settled I was never more conscious of this when the name Mark Breland, 35-3-1, 25 KO’s, surfaced as the fall guy. This is a man who had been active as a professional fighter between the years, 1984 and 1997, represented the USA at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, winning gold, won gold at the World Championships both at welterweight, had won five Golden Gloves titles, was Boxer of the Year in 1982 and was rated number 1 by AIBA in 1984 whilst an amateur.
Not too shabby a record before turning professional.

Born in Brooklyn, Breland was 9 when the bug hit, though it took another 4 years before he entered the gym and started taking his gifts seriously. When an amateur those five wins at the Golden Gove came with an undefeated record and apparently, he was not only undefeated but managed 14 knockout wins out of his 21 wins in the first round!

Overall as an amateur with some pretty serious trophies in his cabinet at home to show off as prizes he turned professional on his own terms, when he wanted to. With a record reputed as an amateur to be 110-1, he was a guy in demand and the hope was that he would turn that golden rich form into riches for himself in the professional game. He waited till the Olympics were done before turning pro and that came on the 15th November 1984 when he faced Dwight Williams in Madison Square Gardens and won a 6 round decision – Williams had only one loss on his 8 fight career…

It only took three years before he was a world champion, winning the WBA welterweight title on the 10th July 1987 in Atlantic City stopping Harold Volbrecht in the 7th round to take the belt. He held onto it for little over a month before Marlon Starling stopped him the 11th round when he was well ahead on points to take the title off him.

He got a rematch in 1988 against Starling for the title in Vegas on the 16th April but a split decision draw meant he could not leave with the belt round his waist.

He got it back when he took out Seung Soon Lee on the 4th February in Caesars Palace Las Vegas with a first round stoppage win! This time, he was not given it up so readily and managed four successful defenses, including coming over to the UK and beating Lloyd Honeyghan at Wembley before losing it, knocked out in the 9th round against Aaron Davis in Reno, in 1990.

He kept fighting until his final fight in 1997, a win against Rick Haynes in Jacksonville and his final five fights – after being out the ring for around five years were all wins!

When he retired from the ring after his fights, he stayed in the boxing game and moved into training. With his vast experience as an Olympic champion, world champion and all round iconic figure, this lead to training the likes of Vernon Forrest as well as Deontay Wilder. It was his association with Wilder that rekindled the interest in his fighting history and also the controversy that came with him throwing in that towel in the Wilder/Fury fight and how he was handled thereafter.

You would think that such a warrior with such a stellar record would automatically be the guy you would think that everyone would look at and think, if he thinks we should do something we are going to do it… In the aftermath of the fight, his boss, Deontay Wilder, a fighter who has made claims of wanting a body on his record, suggesting he sees himself as some type of “warrior” did not thinks so.

Unsurprisingly in the fight with Fury he had wanted to go out on his shield and fight till the bitter end whilst holding onto his WBC belt and to an extent you cannot blame the guy – until you see the fight. Then you see just how battered he was and how beat up and how he was being made to suffer. Fury was well ahead and there was only one way Wilder was going to win – with that booming right hand.

The problem was that the more punishment that Wilder was taking, the more it looked like his right hand as on holiday and unlikely to arrive in time for the final bell.

Once the blame game had started Tyson Fury, always the little scamp who likes mischief suggested he would take Breland into his entourage if he was looking for employment. In the UK this was media gold – as Fury often is. Whilst mad at the time, refusing Breland a spot in his dressing room after the contest, Wilder was also not so stupid once he had calmed down. Breland looks like he is still attached to the former WBC champion.

Cheekily and with some beautiful timing, as he showed throughout the rematch with Wilder Fury was quoted over here as an appreciative admirer of the former welterweight Olympian and world champion. He was quoted as saying, “If Wilder ain’t going to use Mark Breland then I’ll bring him in. Because he’s very good at what he does and he’s got the best interest of the fighter. I respect him. He’s a Kronk fighter and a former world champion.”

Amen to that…

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