Mark Breland

Mark Breland (left) and Serik Konakbayev 2010

Mark Anthony Breland (* 11. May 1963 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is a retired American boxer in the welterweight division . He is one of the best amateur boxers in the history of the United States - he was world champion in 1982, Olympic champion in 1984 - and was a professional world champion of the WBA association .

amateur

Mark Breland has won 110 of 111 amateur fights. He won the New York Golden Gloves five times in a row from 1980 to 1984 and the Intercity Golden Gloves in 1981. He was also American champions in 1982 and 1983. His only loss as an amateur, he suffered at the US championships in 1981 against Darryl Anthony from Missouri .

In May 1982 he took part in the 3rd World Championships in Munich , where he won the gold medal. He defeated Vesa Tapani Koskela from Sweden (knockout), Mihai Ciobotaru from Romania (knockout), Jenő Danyi from Hungary (5-0), Manfred Zielonka from Germany (5-0) and Serik Konakbajew from the Soviet Union (5-0).

He also won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles . He defeated the Canadian Wayne Gordon (5: 0) and the Puerto Rican Carlos Reyes (knockout) in the preliminary round, the Romanian Rudel Obreja (5-0 ) in the second round , and the Mexican Genaro Léon (knockout ) in the quarterfinals .), in the semifinals the Italian Luciano Bruno (5: 0) and in the final the South Korean An Young-su (5: 0).

After the Olympic Games, he switched to the professional camp.

professional

He won his first professional fight on November 15, 1984 against Dwight Williams (7 wins - 1 loss) unanimously on points. In his third fight he defeated the future WBA world champion Steve Little (10-2) also unanimously on points. In July 1985 he won by first-round knockout against the undefeated Don Shiver (19-0).

In 1986 he defeated Troy Wortham (24-0), Richard Aguirre (13-0), Darryl Anthony (20-1, the only boxer who defeated him among the amateurs) and John Munduga (24-0).

On February 6, 1987 in Atlantic City he won the vacant WBA world title by tKo in the seventh round against Harold Volbrecht (39-4). On August 22, 1987, however, he lost the title in Columbia by tKo in the eleventh round to Marlon Starling (41-4), who suffered a nasal bone fracture in return. A rematch on April 16, 1988 in Las Vegas ended in a draw, making Starling world champion.

However, Starling lost the title in July 1988 to Tomás Molinares , who in turn resigned the title in December due to severe depression. Mark Breland was then given another chance for the vacant title on February 4, 1989 in Las Vegas . He won the fight against the South Korean Seung-Soon Lee (31-2) by first-round knockout

After the following knockout title defenses against Rafael Pineda (20-0, later IBF World Champion), Mauro Martelli (33-1, former European Champion), Fujio Ozaki (25-5, Oriental-Pacific Champion) and Lloyd Honeyghan ( 34-2, former WBA-WBC and IBF world champion), he lost his title on July 8, 1990 in Reno by knocking out Aaron Davis (29-0).

He suffered another knockout defeat on September 13, 1991 in Sacramento against former WBC world champion Jorge Vaca . He ended his career in March 1997.

Mark Breland as an actor

In 1983 he made his acting debut with the film drama Cursed is what makes you strong . In 1987 he appeared in two episodes of the television series Miami Vice as a boxer. A few small film appearances followed, u. a. in Spike Lee's Game of Life and Summer of Sam .