BUTTERBEAN MEET & GREET

DEUCE ALLEY PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
MEET & GREET WITH IBA Super Heavyweight Champion ERIC BUTTERBEAN

MONDAY AUGUST 21ST 2023

HESTON'S GLADIATOR ACADEMY
1724 NW TOPEKA BLVD
TOPEKA,KS 66608

MONDAY AUGUST 21ST 2023
7:30PM TO 9:30PM
*ALL AGE EVENT

TICKET PRICES:
$10.00 KID MEET & GREET
$20.00 ADULT MEET & GREET
$15.00 AUTOGRAPHED POSTER

PURCHASE ONLINE TICKETS @ https://holdmyticket.com/event/417058
OR CALL 785-969-7879 FOR MEET & GREET INFO

MEET IBA Super Heavyweight Champion ERIC BUTTERBEAN
This will be a Meet & Greet followed by a Question and Answer session.

Boxing career; "King of the 4 Rounders" (1994-2002)
Esch began his fighting career on the Toughman Contest scene in Texarkana, Arkansas, in the early 1990s and went on to become a five-time World Toughman Heavyweight Champion with a record of 56-5 with 36 knockouts.[6] He received the nickname "Butterbean" when he was forced to go on a diet (consisting mostly of chicken and butterbeans) in order to meet the Toughman 400 pound (181 kg) weight limit under the new age trainer Prozay Buell "the better Buell".[7]

He made his professional boxing debut on October 15, 1994, beating Tim Daniels by decision in Birmingham, Alabama. He soon developed a cult following and became known as "King of the 4 Rounders". Speaking of his popularity in a 2008 interview with BoxingInsider, Esch stated:
"It took off pretty quick, my second pro fight was on national TV--it don't happen like that, normally you get 15, 20 fights and then you get a TV fight unless you're very fortunate. Tyson, his second pro fight wasn't on TV. He probably had five or six, seven fights before he got on TV. Me, my second pro fight was televised, it was on a Jed Hearns undercard. Then a couple more fights and I'm on TV again, and every fight since then was televised. It just don't happen like that. I've probably had more televised fights than any world champion out there."[8]

Esch ran up a string of wins, mostly by knockout, before being stopped in two rounds by Mitchell Rose on December 15, 1995. He went on the road, around the United States, winning 51 consecutive matches, including against Peter McNeeley. While the majority of his opponents were technically limited club-level fighters early in his career, he did move up the ranks to win the IBA Super Heavyweight Championship on April 12, 1997, with a second round technical knockout of Ed White at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. He made five successful title defences before relinquishing his championship in 2000.

After his five-year winning streak was brought to an end with a majority decision defeat by heavyweight Billy Zumbrun in August 2001, he fought his first ten rounder against fifty-two-year-old former world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 27, 2002. While Holmes won a unanimous decision, Esch was credited with a controversial knockdown in the final round, which was later shown in filmed replays as not being a knockdown, no punch having landed, and it was a slip; and Holmes only reeled against the ropes. This was one of only three fights in a 109-fight career that was scheduled for more than four rounds.[9]

Film
Butterbean appeared in the film Jackass: The Movie, in a public stunt: an arranged fight with Johnny Knoxville in a department store. After the fight began, Knoxville fell, got up, was asked by Butterbean to hit him at least once. Knoxville did so, was easily knocked to the floor by Esch, and received several stitches in his head after the encounter (the camera appears to show Knoxville snoring, but Knoxville stated in an interview with Vanity Fair that he was actually trying to swallow his tongue as a result of being knocked out[36]). After waking up, a groggy Knoxville jokingly asked if Butterbean survived the fight. Knoxville stated that Esch is actually quite friendly outside of the ring, despite his fearsome ringside demeanor.