By Charles Brun: Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s co-manager Shelly Finkel has verified that cornerman Mark Breland won’t be working the next fight for ‘The Bronze Bomber’ in December against Tyson Fury.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) will be trained as usual by Jay Deas, and former world title challenger Malik Scott, his assistant coach.
According to ESPN, it’s believed the change has been initiated by Deontay, 34, due to Breland throwing in the towel in round seven in Wilder’s rematch with Fury (30-0, 21 KOs) earlier this year on February 22.
Mark Breland saved Wilder
Breland did the logical thing in having the contest halted, as Wilder was getting horribly pummeled by Fury in the corner in the seventh round at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nevertheless, Wilder wasn’t pleased with Breland’s decision to halt the fight, as he wanted to go on his shield like a warrior.
Many boxing fans agreed with Breland’s decision to stop the fight, as Wilder’s situation was horribly bleak with Fury hammering him with massive shots to the head. Wilder’s face was swollen, his left ear bleeding, and he looked like a mess. Had Fury been able to keep hitting Wilder, who knows what would have happened?
Breland was looking out for Wilder’s health, as he was taking a shellacking from Fury, who was hitting him with repeated blows to the head with both hands. Wilder was literally blocking nothing that Fury was throwing at him.
The only reason Wilder stayed up is due to Fury’s lack of punching power. A big puncher would have had Wilder quickly under those circumstances. But when a fighter is getting hit repeatedly, even by a weak puncher like Fury, it’s still dangerous and risky.
Finkel told ESPN that the 1984 Olympic gold medalist and former two-time WBA welterweight champion Breland (35-3-1, 25 KOs) “will not be part of the team for the next fight. “There hasn’t been wholesale changes.
“I think things will switch around with the team that is there, with Malik [Scott] being in more of a role, and there’s not much more to it,” Finkel said.
“No one knows if this change came about from that one fight, or there were some other things, and the culmination was the loss.”
Deontay had little chance of winning
It seems like an odd move on Wilder’s part to be parting ways with Breland, who was looking out for his good. It’s one thing for a fighter to change out a trainer that leaves them out there too long in a fight that they’re losing badly, but it’s hard to understand terminating a coach that is trying to help.
It was clear from the third round that Wilder had no shot at defeating Fury in the rematch, and he was just getting beaten up. The punching power that Wilder had shown in his first fight against Fury in December 2018 was gone.
Wilder’s right-hand shots hand nothing on them, and his balance was gone after getting hit with a punch to the back of the head in round three. Going into the seventh round, Wilder didn’t even have a puncher’s chance of beating Fury at that point.
The only hope that Wilder had was Fury winding himself from throwing so many punches and feeling over from exhaustion. That wasn’t going to happen obviously, so Breland did the right thing in throwing in the towel.
Wilder’s trainers are getting from the termination of Breland because they don’t dare step in and stop the fight if he starts taking another beating from Fury in the third match.
It would be a good idea for the referee to step in and stop the third Fury-Wilder fight if it looks like Wilder is getting thrashed badly. If the official knows that Wilder’s coaches won’t be stopping the fight to protect him, then the referee must do the right thing to prevent him from getting badly hurt.
Wilder could get hurt in the trilogy
We don’t want the third Fury vs. Wilder contest to resemble an ancient gladiator type of match where Deontay is critically hurt. After all, boxing is supposed to be a sport, and there’s no point in leaving Wilder out there too long to get irreparably injured by Fury potentially.
Wilder intends on keeping Deas and Scott a part of his team, but it would seem that he needs an additional trainer that helps him with his game. In both fights against Fury, Wilder has looked outclassed by the big 6’9″ British fighter. That’s not expected to change for the trilogy match without a drastic change in Wilder’s game.
Superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr has volunteered to help train Wilder for the third fight with Fury, but thus far, nothing has been said about whether Deontay will take him up on the offer.
Besides Mayweather wanting to help Wilder, former heavyweight world champion George Foreman wants to assist him. Interestingly, Wilder would choose to use Malik Scott to fight with Fury rather than signing on Mayweather for Foreman.
Logically, it makes sense for Wilder to go in Foreman or Mayweather’s direction, as those are both former world champions. Scott hasn’t on a world title, and it’s unknown how much he can help Wilder.
The Fury-Wilder trilogy fight was previously scheduled for December 19th, but Fury’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is now looking at scheduling it earlier in December, possibly on December 5th.
Fury-Wilder 3 at Allegiant Stadium
The Fury vs. Wilder III match location will be at the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arum is hoping that a partial live crowd will be allowed into the fight. If they can get a crowd 10,000+, it would help bring in some revenue.
The Wilder vs. Fury 2 rematch pulled in over $16 million from the live gate at the MGM Grand last February, and the third fight would likely do similar numbers of it were staged in front of fans.
With two fights already signed between Fury and IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua for 2021, Tyson can’t afford to postpone the Wilder fight until next year to take advantage of crowds let back into live boxing events.
There’s too much money on the line for the two Joshua-Fury fights for that to be jeopardized by Fury spending valuable time facing Wilder in the first half of 2021.