What Happened to Butterbean? An Update on the Ex-Heavyweight Champ
Butterbean said in 2024 that he’s gearing up for “one closing combat,” probably any individual from “the wrestling neighborhood.”
By Dan ClarendonMar. 19 2024, Published 1:06 p.m. ET
Butterbean preventing Doug Phillips all through a heavyweight boxing fit on Dec. 6, 1997, in Atlantic City, N.J.
Boxing enthusiasts are questioning what happened to Butterbean, aka the boxer born Eric Esch. After all, this is a guy who received the International Boxing Association tremendous heavyweight championship in 1997 and defended it five occasions and who knocked out Bart Gunn in simply 34 seconds at 1999’s WrestleMania XV.
Here’s what we know about Butterbean’s existence now…
What happened to Butterbean? He mentioned he is making plans “one remaining combat.”
It sounds like Butterbean might soon take a final jab at boxing glory.
“I got one remaining fight we’re gonna do,” Butterbean said at a Ok & S WrestleFest virtual signing in January 2024, in line with POST Wrestling. “We’re now not sure exactly who we’re gonna combat. A large number of talks of several big names… There’s one in every of ’em within the wrestling group that’s been brought up several instances. … Who I’d love to struggle and I at all times haven’t was once [Mike] Tyson, and it’s very possible he could be one of the vital 4 that we’re talking with now.”
Butterbean has also misplaced more than 200 kilos.
In an August 2023 Instagram video, Butterbean mentioned his contemporary weight loss as he stepped on the dimensions. “Look, I’ve never done a public weigh-in. First time,” he stated within the clip. “I was 515 a couple of yr and a part in the past, two years in the past, so let’s see what I weigh now,” he said.
Before he got the results, Butterbean informed fans that he’d been figuring out with DDP Yoga, a fitness program led via retired professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page.
“Mr. Diamond Dallas Page has helped me and my friend Joshua, so let’s see what I weigh,” Butterbean stated. The end result? He weighed in at 303.Eight kilos.
In an interview revealed in June 2022, Butterbean informed The Sun that he was once on a gluten-free, dairy-free nutrition made up of low-carb, high-protein meals. “And it’s given me more energy and life since I used to be combating incessantly. But now, I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life,” he said. “I’m at my lowest weight right now than I’ve ever been — I’ve never fought at this weight, as a matter of truth.”
Butterbean was once able to box Tyson then, too. “I’m alive right now, I’m good to go,” he mentioned. “And Mike is in great form. It could be a hell of a fight.”
Butterbean hosted the 2024 Roughest and Toughest Brawl Series as well.
On Jan. 5, 2024, Butterbean kicked off the 10-city 2024 Roughest and Toughest Brawl Series, launching the tour in Gadsden, Ala.
“Eric — I imply Butterbean — used the toughman platform to change into a world sensation. The next nice Brawler might emerge right here,” promoter “Money Mike” Long said in a press release. “Butterbean was a family identify as the king of the 4 rounders. He excelled as a boxer, kick-boxer, wrestler, and MMA fighter. No one was extra exhilarating to watch popping out of his nook.”
In the discharge, Butterbean said that a manufacturing crew would apply the tour to film a “never-before-seen fact show” that might record the making of an newbie Brawl excursion throughout eight episodes.
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