What went wrong: Mark Breland

There's no way he or anybody else could have been able to reach the level he was "supposed" to reach.
Like he said, he wanted to be a world and olympic champion and he did it but he never asked for that amount of hype he got, the media wanted him to be the next Sugar Ray Robinson and nothing below that so at the end he was good enough to reach the highest prize in both amateur and pro boxing, that makes him part of the 1% of boxers and IMO that means that nothing went wrong.

 

Marlon Starling went wrong

 

Duva the destroyer

 

His assets and style didn't transfer across to the pro's as well as so many envisioned. Howard Davis Jr was the same. Both were very good fighters tho.

 

Brilliant alternative view and one that I now share. Top post, sir.

 

Holyfield and Whitaker might beg to differ from that class of 84.

 

They moved him too cautiously. He never fought a live top 10 contender before starling. Volbrecht was a set up fight for the vacant WBA title. A motivated starling had too much experience for him.

 

No, he had the potential to do more.

Sure, he was overhyped. But, he wasn't moved right.

His two WBA title winning efforts were against weak foes. He was coddled before and after starling.

 

Despite winning titles and performing at a high level Starling was continually the most underrated Welterweight of his era particularly by other guys managers.

So many times good prospects were matched against him with a view toward using him to gain experience and leap to the top of the division. It was never came off. Jose "The Threat" Baret 16-0 pumped in 4 and a vertical fall from there. Tommy Ayers 21-0 outclassed and an average career thereafter. Donald Curry caught him on an off night but beat him in a high class affair when both were peaking later. It was the fight that announced Curry as one very very serious Welterweight for many. Simon Brown 21-0 put up a fine fight but was beaten in a great development fight. A year later Breland gets stopped.

Starling just loved fighting these unbeaten guys. A superb fighter who just sometimes put in the odd lazy effort.

 

Breland had the talent to be an all time great.
The problem is everyone wanted him to be another Hearns and he wasn't .
Second problem is he should have stayed with Steward and he didn't .
He dropped Milton Mccroy in sparring and Milton had a good chin.
When he sparred Hearns he looked great-moving and boxing. It's on YouTube i think.
Starling was losing his first bout vs Breland and even got his nose broken so it wasn't like he just walked in there and blew Breland out .
Aaron Davis almost got stopped by Breland and up to that punch that flattened Breland he was a bloody mess.

 

Everyone here has some good theories, I, too, wondered but there have been other fighters I wondered- how did they not make it?

 

Well, they probably knew he wasn't going to be that great of a pro, but because of his amateur exploits they were able to capitalize on the media hype and make as much money as they could until he actually had to face live competition, were he was exposed.

 

I believe he was being brought up as the new Tommy Hearns ,which are big shoes to fill .After the starling fight he lost a Lotta confidence ,he managed to regain the belt from a shot Honeyghan ,but he was never seen in the same destructive light again

 

Some may not have seen samples of the hype and expectation.

"Mark is the most talented boxer I've ever had," said

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, the Kronk Gym trainer who will handle Breland after the Olympics.

"Breland reminds me of the Sugar Ray Robinson I first saw fighting as an amateur at the Salem Crescent Gymnasium in Harlem," says

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, the 84-year-old trainer of world champions Roberto Duran, Ezzard Charles, Barney Ross and Tony Zale. "He's a natural. He can box, he can punch, he knows how to make an opening, he picks off punches good, and he has a grace and rhythm that go with it. And he knows how to relax. Breland has the makings of a truly great fighter."

"He's easily the best amateur I've ever seen," says John Condon, the Garden's president for boxing. "Even better than Leonard."

Says veteran matchmaker Teddy Brenner, "Breland might even have a little better shot than Leonard as a pro, and the reason is that, like Robinson, he outsizes his opponents. The only things about Breland that the jury is out on are his stamina and chin. If he has those two things, he's a can't-miss."


https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/13/sports/breland-has-just-begun.html

http://newsok.com/article/2077043

https://www.si.com/vault/1984/07/09/620426/the-writing-is-on-the-wall