they have so much in common: Both were freakishly tall stringbeans. both were world champions (alphabeth titles). both won vacant titles. both were big punchers. both had weak chins. both were hailed as "future greats".........mccrory being compared to tommy hearns. breland to sugar ray robinson himself. And both fell short of expectations. brelands "edge" if you so want was that he was a gold medalist. but mccrory was also a well schooled amateur. so who takes it????
Breland may not lived up to the hype thrown at him, but IMO he was level above the Ice man. Breland TKO10.
Breland was more talented and a harder hitter.I'd pick him to take a close decision. I don't think McCrory had a weak chin.Look at his fights with Jones and McCallum.The curry shot was just a superb and sneaky punch that would have badly hurt most fighters.
Gosh, the battle of the two slightly fragiles. Against pop opinion i would not be surprised to see McCrory lay him out. He came back to the pack a bit when the competition was raised but had a big right hand and some good skills vs someone that didn't overwhelm him or smother him.
Even though Breland floored him in that sparring session, I think Milton stops Mark in the mid to late rounds.McCrory was a very good fighter at one point, and if he had fought Curry in '82 instead of '85, he may have beaten him.
Milton takes this one by 11th round TKO.Mark was a good fighter, but only Curry beat Milton at 147, and Mark is not on that level.Would be a pretty even fight for the first five rounds, however.
I don't think (at least up to a point in time) that McCrary was all THAT fragile. Not Breland-level fragile anyway. He stood up to the immense pressure and very hard punching of Colin Jones for 24 rounds. Breland couldn't have done that. Breland wasn't that hard a puncher, either. Once he went up to fight better opposition, the power went away almost completely. McCrory TKO 7 or 8.........
A draw. Milton didn't hit a hard as Mark, but he had a better chin and all around a more solid fighter. I pick Milton in a close decision or a draw. Hearns would knock out both. He would stop Breland in 2 and Milton in 4 or 5.
Yeah, almost forgot about old Colin Jones:good! It was those fights that first made me lessen my opinion about Milton somewhat.
I'd have to go with McCrory, for a while he was going to be the next Tommy Hearns and he was well schooled as an amateur and then at the Kronk. For me Breland never showed enough grit. McCrory takes this by late stoppage. :smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke