UFC 130 Blog

As Butterbean is about to fight next month at Cage Rage 19, I thought it would be good to give a biography of his past work.

Eric "Butterbean" Esch (born August 3, 1966 in Bay City, Michigan) is a professional boxer and mixed martial artist, known for his bald head and an excessive weight. Butterbean stands 5 ft 11 in. and weighs over 370 pounds. He is the former IBA World Super heavyweight Champion. Esch's round body, bald head and vicious scowl, make him a menacing (yet highly entertaining) fight figure. His overall fight record currently stands at 82 wins with 58 knockouts, 9 losses and 5 draws.

Boxing career

Known as the "King of 4 rounders", Butterbean developed a cult following after he burst onto the Toughman Contest scene in the United States before entering the world of professional boxing in 1994. He was a five time World Toughman Heavyweight Champion with a record of 56-5 with 36 knockouts (not counted towards pro career).

While the majority of his opponents have been technically limited, club level fighters, he did move up the ranks to win the IBA World Super Heavyweight Championship in 1997. Butterbean fought "Hurricane" Peter McNeeley, famous as a former Mike Tyson opponent, in Las Vegas in 1999. He stopped McNeeley in the first round. Butterbean faced former world champion Larry Holmes in 2002. Holmes won a unanimous 10-round decision with Butterbean credited with a knockdown in the final round. Esch's most recent title shot came on October 15, 2005 where he lost a split decision against George Linberger for the NABC Super Heavyweight title.

Esch's professional boxing record is 75 wins with 56 knockouts, 7 losses and 4 draws. He has a boxing match scheduled against Joe Siciliano on March 9, 2007 at the Palladium.

WWF appearences

Butterbean has appeared twice in WWF events competing in boxing matches. In 1997, at an In Your House pay-per-view event, he defeated Marc Mero (who is a former boxer) via disqualification in a worked match. Two years later, Butterbean defeated Bart Gunn in a legitimate shootfight at Wrestlemania XV, defeating the Brawl For All champion with extreme ease, knocking him out in 30 seconds.

Mixed Martial Arts career

Butterbean's previous fighting experiences led him to venture into mixed martial arts. At K-1 Premium 2003 on December 31, 2003, Butterbean lost his first MMA bout to 155 lbs Japanese fighter Genki Sudo via tap out to a heel hook. Esch regrouped, going 6-0-1 in appearances in King of the Cage, Fightfest, and Rumble on the Rock including a TKO stoppage of Cabbage Correira. Esch returned to Japan with the PRIDE Fighting Championships on August 26, 2006 to compete at Bushido 12 against Ikuhisa Minowa (a much smaller fighter) to whom he lost via armbar at 4:25 of round one. Less than two months later, Butterbean won the scheduled fight against Irish-American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist Sean O'Haire at Pride FC's first North American show on October 21, 2006 via knockout at 30 seconds in the first round.

Butterbean's MMA record is 7 wins with 2 knockouts, 2 losses and 1 draw. Esch is currently training with American Top Team to improve his ground game and is scheduled to meet former K-1 champion Mark Hunt (whom he was scheduled to fight before an injury required O'Haire to step in as a replacement) in a future PrideFC event.

Media career

Butterbean appeared in the film Jackass: The Movie, where he fought Johnny Knoxville in a department store, where Knoxville was floored by Esch and received several stitches in his head after the encounter. However, it is obvious in the movie that Butterbean gives Knoxville several rabbit punches as Knoxville was going down. On the DVD commentary Knoxville stated that Esch is actually quite friendly outside of the ring, despite his fearsome ringside demeanor.

Butterbean also appeared in the film Chairman of the Board as the Museum Security Guard with the "chia hair", a fact that is pointed out on the DVD commentary by the movie's star Scott "Carrot Top" Thompson.

Butterbean was featured as the cover character as well as the final boss character in the EA Sports title "Toughman Contest" released in July 1995 for the Sega Genesis and Sega 32X.

Talk about Butterbean here. 

Amended card:

Rob Broughton vs. Eric "Butterbean" Esch

Zelg Galesic vs. Mark Weir

Vitor Ribeiro vs. Daisuke Nakamura

Elvis Sinosic vs. Mark Epstein

Tengiz Tedoradze vs. Wesley "Cabbage" Correira

Arni Isaksson vs. Jean Silva

Alex Reid vs. Xavier Foupa Pokam

Jess Liaudin vs. Ross Mason

Dave Legeno vs. Alan Murdoch

Paul Daley vs. Luiz Azeredo

Matt Ewin vs. Alex Cook

Lee Doski vs Suley Mahmood

Discuss about CRC 19 here.