Was Mark Breland really a hype job?

Breland just didn't live up to expectations, based on his amazing amateur success. He was a good pro, but never came close to the greatness many (the media) expected of him. The media was looking for the next Ray Leonard.

Physically, maybe Breland's extra long, lanky frame work against him in the pro game. As he wore down as the fights went longer.

 

Are you silly?

 

Breland was a solid fighter and a class act. He was the greatest amateur fighter ever. No he wasn't a hype job at all. He was a world champion that didn't quite fullfill the huge expectations of the media, but he was a great fighter and better person.

 

He wasn't a hype job. He just didn't have a good enough chin.

 

He was a good pro but that's about it. He never came close to living up to the incredibly lofty expectations that came with being one of the greatest amateurs ever (for me, second only to Rigondeaux).

If he were just another, normal fighter, people would say he had a decent career. Unfortunately, some were talking about him potentially being another Ray Robinson, so he came nowhere near to justifying the hype.

 

The hype was so great because he was such a great amateur fighter. He was on the cover of Ring as an Amateur. He won a Gold medal so the amateur hype was deserved. As a pro he was still very good he just did not live up to the extreme hype. If you follow NFL I would say he is something like Reggie Bush.

 

Yes!

 

I think he gets too much of a bad rap based not living up to the insane hype people had built for him, but it's not like he didn't still have a very good pro career despite that.

Given what people were building him up as though, anything less than a high level HOF career was a disappointment. So even though he was good, he was a hype job. It would've been nearly impossible for him to not be given the insane expectations though.

 

Ifya hadda kid fight Breland in the amateurs, DB, ya feared for his life. He wasn't a boxer, he was a preying mantis. He didn't knock kids out, he left'em for dead with a clothesline right, usually in the echo of the opening bell.

When ya do that over 90 times, ya ain't no joke.

 

bump

 

Breland was a good fighter, but Marlon Starling was better. Breland was expected to blow Starling away before their first meeting, after all Starling had lost two decisions to Curry so wasn't seen as being truly top level (he was).

Even after his first fight with Starling, a lot of the Boxing Press had him as a favourite for the rematch but Breland was pretty much gifted a draw. It wasn't that he was a hype job, just that the expectations of him were too high. A decent alphabet champ in what was a pretty strong 147lb era (the aforementioned Starling, Brown, Trice, Honeyghan etc etc.)

 

Exactly. Those fragile whiskers of his weren't a serious liability in the amateur game, but his punch resistance problems inevitably limited his success as a pro.

Yet another example of why having a good chin is so important in this game.

 

He was described as a combination of Ray Robinson and Tommy Hearns and was expected to take world titles from welterweight to middleweight...even before he'd turned pro