Why Didnt Mark Breeland have a better career

He had a hundred or so fights as an amateur against elite competition. While amateur fights are seen as very different from the pro game (and they are) people forget you still get hit in the head and accumulate miles on the clock. This can show when you turn pro, and I feel Don Curry is a similar case (with 400 amateur fights). When he turned pro he was immediately overhyped but had fairly weak opposition on the way up which didn't really prepare him for the perennially underrated Marlon Starling which was his first major test. The fact he lost to someone he was expected to dominate (after all Curry had beaten Marlon twice) and fell at the first hurdle when he stepped up in class damaged his career and shook his self confidence.

Having said all that he did a lot better as a pro than many amateur stars, he was one of the greatest amateur fighters of all time and became a successful trainer so if you remove the hype he did pretty well over all!

 

Great post, Man!!!

 

Great assessment.
Also, Starling was written off by most at that time and was undoubtedly underestimated. He hit his peak as a pro a bit later on, if anything. As with many fighters, a loss can change them in different ways. Sterling improved from his losses, whereas I think Breland lost some confidence.

 

I thought his career was pretty solid

 

Agree. To a certain extent. 2 time WBA champion at welterweight. But let’s not forget what a DEEP division welterweight was at the time.

 

80’s were awesome for welterweight

 

Unlike Hearns, Breland did'nt build his upper body to make it stronger for the pro ranks.
I think Breland's power got vastly overratted. While it was good enough to knockout inferior opposition, he lacked he and punching power to tackle with physically strong welters who could take it to an opponent. With that lack of physical strenght tagged along a less than stellar ability to take punches.

 

This Breland just didn't look like a physically strong fighter like Hearns did who was a similar height. And that was evident when Starling bullied him.

 

blofeld and divac's posts are most of the answer imo.

also he didn't change enough, loma learned that you need a different skillset but i'm not sure breland did.

 

Thanks very much!

 

I always thought Don Curry was having a great career up until he fought Lloyd Honeyghan. Until then he was looking to take over Hagler as the best P4P guy. He had unified against McCrory and destroyed Colin Jones as well. McCrory and Jones had fought exceptionally against each other for the other title.

 

Good stuff here.

 

For most fighters, he had an outstanding career.

But because of his amateur accomplishments and all the hype behind him, he is measured by a higher standard. He didn’t become a superstar or super dominant fighter … just a two-time world champion.

I understand he managed his money well and continues to live well because of his reserves and investments so seems like the story has a good ending.

 

Marlon Starling