By Brad Slotnick: Deontay Wilder’s former trainer Mark Breland has reportedly been added to the coaching staff of WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.
Wilder recently released the former two-time welterweight champion and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Breland (35-3-1, 25 KOs) in response to him throwing in the towel to have his fight with Tyson Fury halted in the seventh round last year in February 2020.
Charlo (31-0, 22 KOs) is trained by Ronnie Shields, and it’s unclear what capacity the former five-time golden gloves winner Breland would have with the team.
It’s debatable whether Charlo needs Breland as the second coach because he’s not facing dangerous opposition since moving up to 160 in 2017.
Jermall has had six fights at middleweight, and the only two notable ones are Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Matt Korobov. Charlo arguably deserved a loss to Korobov in their fight in 2018, and he had a tough time beating Derevyanchenko in September of 2020.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has been trying to get Charlo to agree to a unification fight with WBO 160-lb champ Demetrius Andrade, but he’s not made any progress on that front.
Hearn recently expressed disappointment after learning that Charlo will be defending his WBC middleweight title against Juan Macias Montiel (24-2, 22 KOs) next rather than choosing to face Andrade in a unification fight that would pay more.
Hearn said that it wouldn’t be a problem for the Charlo vs. Andrade fight to occur on Showtime rather than DAZN.
Jermall, 31, is getting to make a title defense of his WBC 160-lb belt on Showtime against #4 WBC Montiel (22-4-2, 22 KOs) on June 19th at a still-to-be-determined venue.
Fans have heavily criticized Charlo in choosing to fight the little-known 27-year-old Montiel, as this is a guy that has never beaten anyone of note.
He’s lost four times against sublevel opposition and was destroyed in two rounds by Jaime Munguia in 2017. The only notable wins on Montiel’s resume are James Kirkland and Marco Reyes.
Boxing fans wanted to see Charlo go up to 168 to take on former two-time WBC champion David Benavidez, but he chose not to pursue the fight.
Charlo felt that he wouldn’t gain anything in moving up to 168 to fight a non-champion like Benavidez. He doesn’t have a belt after losing his title on the scales last year before his fight with Roamer Alexis Angulo.
Wilder was hurt from being hit repeatedly to the back of the head by Fury, and his legs were gone. Additionally, Wilder’s right hand wasn’t working for him because he had an injured bicep.
Many boxing fans were upset with Wilder after learning that he’d let Breland go because of him looking out for his welfare by stopping the fight.
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