Butterbean, the eccentric phenomenon who made millions, knocked out a referee, drew crowds and now he does not leave his town

Luciano Gonzalez

10/17/2020 7:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 10/17/2020 7:01 AM

“For me, fighting was never really about how good you are, but how many people want to see you.

.

The explanation is surely a hit below the belt for boxing purists.

But it was this primacy of the

over technique that made

during the last years of the last century and the first of this

, whom almost no one knows by name, but many identify by his nickname:

. 

Not long before drawing crowds around the globe, Esch was an overweight young man whose connection to the sport had been through American football (he had played until age 17 in high school) and who worked assembling flats at Southern Energy Homes, a company that produced manufactured homes in Jasper, Alabama.

In 1990, when he was 23 years old, a group of friends challenged him to participate in the

, an amateur boxing championship held annually in cities across the United States.

Two obstacles seemed to stand between Esch and that challenge.

The first was that

or played any other contact sport.

But everyone, including the organizers, decided to ignore that detail.

The second problem was that the Toughman Contest set its participants a weight limit of 400 pounds (181.4 kilos) and the aspiring fighter weighed 420. To drop those 20 pounds (9 kilos) in three weeks, he followed a rigorous regimen at base of chicken and butter beans (

, in English).

Butterbean spent his entire professional career weighing over 135 kilos (Photo: AFP)

"That diet had some gassy side effects, but it worked - I lost weight and was ready to fight," he said in a 2016 interview published in

magazine

.

That eating scheme also gave him the nickname that would accompany him throughout his career.

Their first fight was in a Jasper farm shed, which had been built to host rodeo competitions and which had later hosted several Toughman Contest events.

In a city of 14,000 inhabitants, 1,600 gathered to see local credit.

But he tried again three weeks later in the same shed.

Not only did he knock out his rival, but he won that local edition of the Toughman Contest.

"He kept fighting mainly because he

" said Esch, who became Toughman's world runner-up in 1994. He then had 67 victories in 71 fights, with 40 knockouts.

The American flag always accompanied Butterbean on her clothing.

After losing that final in Atlantic City, which was broadcast on the Showtime network,

, who was already 28 years old and had three children, signed a contract with the promoter

and made his professional debut on October 15, 1994: he beat on points to Tim Daniels in Birmingham, Alabama.

“He didn't look like a boxer and his defense wasn't the best, but

.

We had to handle it carefully.

If he fought a guy with a lot of movement, he was in trouble.

He needed to face opponents who would stand up, ”

, Top Rank president and Esch career maker

, explained bluntly

.

He tied for 15 consecutive victories, 10 of them before the limit, and even

: in the closing of the third round of the fight against

in Kenner, a right hook attempt went to the face of referee

, who He was trying to separate the two mastodons and ended up lying on the canvas.

The winning streak was snapped when he was knocked out in the second round by

, who had won only one of his nine professional fights, at

on December 15, 1995, the night

defended. for the sixth and final time the WBO lightweight title against Texan J

.

Butterbean

then chained 51 fights and

(48 victories and 3 draws), always with a tonnage exceeding 135 kilos, against rivals with a curriculum between modest and very poor, and in short duels, many times as a preliminaryist on billboards that included figures like De La Hoya.

Thus he became the

.

Even the fledgling International Boxing Association (IBA) awarded him a four-round super heavyweight champion title.

A colorful star, he

, signed similar autographs, drew crowds, fought at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, and toured the world exhibiting.

One of those trips brought him to Buenos Aires

: on October 11, 1997 and as part of the "Live Sport" exhibition, he faced J

Cordoba

on the property of Sociedad Rural Argentina, in Palermo, in a duel that left him quite unhappy with the public.

Butterbean tries to evade a right hand of Jorge Dáscola, in Palermo Photo: Clarín Archive

Esch's extravagant career was not without its chiaroscuro.

In November 1999, his name was mentioned in a

journalistic investigation

into alleged

involving, among others, former world champion

.

According to the post, two opponents and two boxing commissioners, who gave testimony on condition of anonymity, claimed that at least four

bouts

had been rigged.

The journalistic complaint did not have a subsequent judicial verification, but it updated rumors that had already been circulating in the world of gloves regarding the opposition that Esch used to encounter and the

that had caused some of his knockouts.

Even one adversary,

, who lost to

in 1996 in a fight that lasted just 18 seconds, informally acknowledged that

.

Butterbean lost on points to Larry Holmes on July 27, 2002, in Norfolk. AP Photo

In January 2004, after a 20-month sting operation, the FBI raided Top Rank's Las Vegas offices and seized computer hard drives, medical records, fighting cassettes, boxer contracts, and financial documents as part of an investigation that investigated fixed fights, tax fraud, false medical reports and other illegal practices.

According to the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, during the raid "the FBI put emphasis on obtaining videos of Esch's fights, which were part of the Top Rank archives."

To his and Arum's relief, the investigating agency closed the case two and a half years later

.

On July 27, 2002,

starred in the most important fight of his career and the only 10-round fight: he faced

, one of the most outstanding champions in heavyweight history, who by then was already 52 years old.

That night, the 7,097 spectators who attended the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia, alternated whistles and some shouts of encouragement for Holmes and left with the feeling that something must end.

“If boxing had a

tour

, Holmes would be champion again.

But this is not the case, so the proud and pot-bellied man will have to continue hitting those who were never oddities like Esch, "said the AP agency chronicler, who defined the fight as" a show that

who had never fought more than four rounds. "

The grandfather won on points and never went back into a

.

After that defeat,

began to combine boxing with

matches

, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling, which were definitely transforming his career into something more like

than high performance sports and that led him to Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, England and Poland, as well as dozens of cities in the United States and Canada.

He even agreed to fight an eight-foot, 550-kilogram grizzly bear in Big Bear, California, but the event was canceled at the last minute due to a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a non-governmental organization that works for the defense of animal rights.

It was not surprising that a man with such a profile also dabbled in film and television.

In 2002, he starred in one of the most celebrated scenes in

, the

that continued the MTV series that had completed three seasons based on blows, collisions, fractures and concussions.

Johnny Knoxville

, the main character and one of the writers, had planned a showdown with Mike Tyson.

The former world champion did not accept the treat and his place was taken by

, who knocked out Knoxville at a Los Angeles clothing store.

He also played a small role in

a film starring comedian

and released in 1998. And he was invited several times on

, the famous late-night talk show on NBC that he was hosting at the time. Jay Leno.

In 2011, he was the central draw for all 10 episodes of

, a Discovery reality show that featured his work as a reserve deputy sheriff in Walker County.

During filming, the fighter began to experience

.

That difficulty and low viewership levels prevented the show from continuing after its first season.

In his role as Walker's deputy sheriff, Esch starred on the reality show Big Law: Deputy Butterbean.

"I was in the limelight for so long that people think they know me, as they think they know the actors at the end of the movie, but they have no idea who I really am," Esch said in July 2013, just a few days. after his last fight as a rented boxer.

By then,

, the restaurant he had owned and operated in Jasper,

had closed

and settled in a rural area on the outskirts of town.

There he set up a carpentry workshop and experimented with making homemade wine.

"I like the loneliness, because I got to a point where I almost had panic attacks being in public," then revealed the giant, whose back had been patted by thousands since the first day he put on his gloves in the storage shed. a farm.

HS

Look also

Inmate 84AO172, Dewey Bozella: he was innocent, he spent 26 years in prison and at 52 he was a professional boxer for a day

Roña Castro's challenge to those who assaulted him: "I invite these jets to come to the gym"