Breland Gets to Come Home After Knockout Performance

World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion Mark Breland completed his year-long world tour with a devastating defeat of Briton Lloyd Honeyghan, knocking the challenger down six times in less than nine minutes Saturday night.

Breland, who has needed only 14 rounds to defend his championship successfully in four countries over the last 12 months, retained his title when the referee stopped the fight at 2:15 of the third round.

The 26-year-old New Yorker stunned Honeyghan with a hard left jab and knocked him down for the first time 85 seconds into the fight.

“He was scared to death. When I hit him, I took everything out of him,” Breland said. “He underestimated me.”

Breland knocked Honeyghan down twice in the second round and three times in the third, even though he said his right arm was sore from a punch he took on his elbow in training three weeks ago.

Honeyghan, a former undisputed welterweight champion who has lost three of his last six fights, said he felt “perfectly terrible” after the fight and admitted he never recovered from the first knockdown.

“He caught me right at the start and then it seemed as if he was catching me on the same spot again and again,” said Honeyghan (34-3).

Honeyghan, seeking to become the first Briton to win a title three times, gave away six inches in height and five inches in reach to the lanky champion and hardly ever got close to him.

Breland, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, has won 27 of 29 pro bouts. After defending his title successfully in Atlantic City, N.J., last April, he has defeated opponents in Switzerland, Japan and England.

Manager Dan Duva said he hopes Breland’s next fight will be closer to home.

“The world tour is over,” Duva said. “The U.S. tour is about to begin.”

Honeyghan had vowed before the fight to come after the American challenger, but he walked into a barrage that had him on the floor at 1:25 of the first round.

The punishment continued in the second round, with another left jab putting Honeyghan down at 2:05 and a right flooring him with 10 seconds left in the round.

Breland needed nine seconds to drop Honeyghan again in the third round and recorded the fifth knockdown 45 seconds later. He unloaded a series of punches on the stunned Honeyghan, who collapsed in a corner at 2:11.