# Mark Breland vs. Marlon Starling

Mark Breland vs. Marlon Starling was a professional boxing match contested on August 22, 1987, for the WBA welterweight title.

## Background

Mark Breland had defeated Harold Volbrecht in February 1987 to claim the vacant WBA welterweight title, which had been vacated by previous champion Lloyd Honeyghan after Honeyghan refused to face the South African Volbrecht due to the country's apartheid policies. After his victory, Breland disclosed that he had broken his left hand in the first round which would require surgery and delay his first title defense for the time being. Breland would return to the ring July winning a non-title tune-up fight before it was announced that he would face the WBA's number-one ranked contender Marlon Starling in August. Breland's original opponent was scheduled to be Tommy Ayers, but Ayers had been upset by journeyman Rollin Williams in June resulting in him losing both his number-one ranking and title shot to Starling.
Though Starling was a veteran of 45 fights, more than double that of Breland, who sported a 18–0 record, Starling entered the fight as an underdog. Starling dismissed Breland's previous opponents feeling that Breland had not fought anyone close to his caliber stating "I'm going to introduce Mark Breland to the pros. I've got more KOs than Breland has fights." Breland, however, sported a sizable height and reach advantage and mentioned as much rebuffing Starling's claims retorting "My advantage is my height and my reach and my smarts, He's an experienced fighter. But I think he's underestimating me by a lot of things they've been saying."
The fight took place in Columbia, South Carolina and was the first world title bout to take place in the state. It was a homecoming of sorts for Breland, as though Breland had been born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were both from South Carolina and lived in nearby Denmark in a house Breland had purchased for them. Starling's manager Donnie Bowers tried to nullify Breland's hometown advantage by attempting to have the fight moved elsewhere, though he was unsuccessful.

## The Fight

Breland used his height and reach advantage over built up a commanding lead on all three scorecards as he landed frequent jabs on the smaller Sterling. However, Starling, despite losing rounds, continually frustrated Breland by frequently clinching and pushing Breland, who went down to canvas eight times as a result of Starling's antics for which referee Tony Perez deducted a point from him in the sixth round. However, in the 11th round, Breland, who had never fought past 10 rounds up that point and was fighting with torn cartilage in his ribs, was stunned after Starling landed a shot to his ribs that sent him into the ropes on the defensive. Starling, realizing Breland was hurt, went on the attack and eventually landed a left hook that sent Breland down. Breland struggled mightily to get back up and Perez, feeling that Breland could not continue, stopped the fight at 1:38 of the round.

## Aftermath

Breland hoped for an immediate rematch with Starling, but WBA rules at the time prevented a rematch from happening for the time being.
They would meet again in April 1988.

## Fight card

Confirmed bouts:
^Note 1 For WBA Welterweight title

## Broadcasting

| Country | Broadcaster |
| United States | ABC |