By: Sean Crose
After being attacked by Deontay Wilder for stopping his rematch with Tyson Fury earlier this year, trainer Mark Breland has responded to Wilder’s media assault.
“Anyone who really knows me, knows I wouldn’t go back & forth with anybody UNLESS it’s in the Ring!” Breland wrote on Instagram Sunday. “I’ve been Boxing since I was 8 yrs old. So I didn’t give a big portion of my life to the sport, I DEDICATED MY ENTIRE LIFE TO THIS SPORT! I have never seen the things I’m seeing now in ALL of those years!”
According to Breland, it was someone else who convinced him to address matters on social media. “I’m only on social media because of my girl,” he wrote. “We went somewhere and there was a picture of me & we were very surprised & she said ‘this is one of the reasons you need social media in this day & time.’”
Despite the difficult time he’s been going through, Breland makes it clear in the post that he’s not going anywhere. “She asks me all the time,” he writes, “am I tired of it, do I want to go back to life without it. I always say no..because the amount of support, love & gratitude I get let’s me know all the hard work I put into my career was worth it!” Breland also expressed gratitude to those who have supported him, especially Teddy Atlas, who spoke of the matter on his podcast.
Breland was a successful welterweight titlist who had turned to a successful training career when he helped guide Wilder to the level of heavyweight titlist. Since stopping Wilder’s last fight in order to save his man, however, Breland has been on the receiving end of Wilder’s wrath.
Unable to accept that he may have been bested by Fury fair and square – Fury battered him throughout the bout, after all – Wilder has blamed everything to the costume he entered to the ring with to team Fury, to Breland himself, who he has accused of disloyalty, and worse. For Wilder claims he suspects Breland had something to do with tampering his water before the disastrous second fight with Fury.
Although he has his defenders, most media, analysts and online fans have condemned Wilder for his accusations. Up until now, however, the soft spoken Breland has remained silent on the matter. With decades worth of honest work to back him up, he has had a right to. Still, things have clearly reached a point where even a man like Breland has had to make a public statement on the matter.
