Mark Breland.. Educate me

Despite being talented and having a notable career in the professional boxing ranks, Mark Breland didn't have enough stamina and durability to be a great fighter.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Great amateur. Great. Good enough to win a strap at the professional level. His style and physique didn't translate well to the pros as it was perfectly suited to the ams. But a class act, and I'm a fan as we're both New Yorkers.

 

You're a great poster, Chuck!

 

Great height and reach. Great Jab. Good, but not great right hand. Like Hearns, he was in big trouble once anyone with decent power got inside his reach. Mediocre defense. His reach was his best defense. One big problem was that he was overprotected early in his career. He never really fought a legitimate top 10 guy until AFTER he won the WBA Welterweight title. Starling was by far the best guy he had fought. Breland was basically given the WBA title by winning the vacant title over well-connected, mediocre even at his best, and fading Harold Volbrecht.

 

Good observation. His management brought him along too slowly, then put him in with a guy, Starling, who was was too cagey and experienced for him. It was Breland's first legitimate test against a real top 10 guy. Breland never fought the mid level guys he should have fought to gain experience. I mean, Harold Volbrecht was never a legitimate top 10 guy, and certainly should have never been near a title shot - Yet Volbrecht was matched with Breland for the vacant WBA title. Before that, Breland's best victims were Daryl Anthony and Troy Waters - top 20 types at best.

In retrospect, I think his management underestimated Starling. Remember, Starling had lost, albeit controversially to one of their fighters - Johnny Bumpus.

I think if brought along in a smarter fashion, he could have done more overall in his career.

 

I don't believe he ever existed. I cannot then and will not now believe that anyone can be
6'3" tall and weight only 147 pounds. Besides someone in a besieged city or dying of malnutrition.

 

Yes, he was never going to be "the next Sugar Ray Robinson" but he could have developed better than he was if handled more shrewdly.