Mark Breland

CTL-E-7099 · Person · other · 1963–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07971 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7099.

Mark Anthony Breland, born May 11, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York, is regarded among the greatest amateur boxers the United States has produced. He compiled an amateur record of 110-1, won five consecutive New York Golden Gloves titles with a 21-0 record and 19 knockouts in that competition, and took the 1982 world amateur welterweight championship in Munich, defeating Serik Konakbayev in the final. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics he won the welterweight gold medal, Olympedia records, defeating South Korea's An Young-Su (An Yeong-Su) by unanimous decision in the final. He turned professional on November 15, 1984, at Madison Square Garden and won the vacant WBA welterweight title on February 6, 1987, stopping Harold Volbrecht in the seventh round at Atlantic City. He lost the title in his first defense, stopped in eleven rounds by Marlon Starling in August 1987, drew with Starling in their 1988 rematch, then regained the vacant WBA title on February 4, 1989, with a first-round knockout of Seung-Soon Lee, and made three successful defenses before losing it to Aaron Davis in 1990. After a five-year retirement he returned for five final wins and retired for good in 1997 with a professional record of 35-3-1 with 25 knockouts, afterward working as a boxing trainer.

The record

• Also known as: Mark Anthony Breland

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0481. Firsts disposition: no championship first is claimed; the amateur distinctions are carried as attributed honors — the only boxer to win five consecutive New York Daily News Golden Gloves titles (BoxRec), and the most wins in Golden Gloves history, surpassing Sugar Ray Robinson (his record summary) — not as standing records. Identity/variance: Olympedia and the bout record spell the 1984 final opponent An Young-Su / An Yeong-Su; both romanizations name the same South Korean finalist. The USA Boxing release's professional line '35-3-1 (35 KOs)' is a misprint — his bout record totals 25 knockouts, the figure the description carries — flagged here rather than blended. A Ringside Report retrospective misdates the Volbrecht title win to July 10, 1987; the bout record's February 6, 1987 governs. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Breland's record is the amateur summit of his era — 110-1 and Olympic gold — followed by a professional career, twice a world champion, that has been judged ever since against an almost impossible amateur standard. Photo: CLEARED, CC BY-SA 3.0, Michael Kozlowsky photograph (2010) whose Commons description names Mark Breland and Serik Konakbayev — the man Breland defeated in the 1982 world amateur final; it depicts Breland (left, as captioned on the file page) with Konakbayev, and magazine-cover files were passed over in its favor.

Sources

• Olympedia. "Welterweight (≤67 kilograms), Men — Los Angeles 1984." Olympedia.org. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• USA Boxing. "Simply the Best! Mark Breland" (USA Boxing Alumni Association Hall of Fame announcement, December 3, 2019), via PhilBoxing.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• "Mark Breland." Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

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