Eric Esch, much better known as "Butterbean" is really well known for being the "King of the 4 rounders" in boxing exhibitions that were more of a novelty than any sort of championship-level boxing.
Then near 400 pound super-heavyweight isn't exactly known for his endurance (how could he be?) but he certainly has a lot of power in his overhand right. I have only seen a few of his fights and the most exciting one is probably the fight he had with Johnny Knoxville in a department store.
Anyway, I was stunned to find out that this behemoth actually fought in MMA for over 8 years and somehow managed to have a winning record.
Now I have never heard of any of his opponents or even most of the organizations that he had contracts with. One of the groups he fought with was Cage Rage Championships and this was a good place for "Bean" to be because they have a rule that any action that goes to the ground has to be stood back up after 15 seconds regardless of the action that is going on. I think that it is easy to understand that a 390 pound round fella like Eric Esch probably experiences difficulty getting up at all, let alone when someone is lying on top of him.
Believe it or not, 7 of his 15 victories were from submissions. I found this very shocking as did the big man's ability to throw knees in the clinch. I would imagine that his knees, if he can land them, would hurt substantially more than a normal sized human's seeing as how one of his legs probably weighs as much as a small adult.
Time after time in the ring, Butterbean would be faced with someone who appeared to be in top physical form and you kind of felt bad for Eric Esch when the fight began because almost everyone that he was against had a reach and mobility advantage.
Take this guy, for example. His name is James Thompson. He is nearly a foot taller than Butterbean and has victories over Dan Severn and Don Frye (not in his prime, to be fair.) You would have thought, especially once James landed a strong leg kick on Bean, that this was going to be a very one-sided affair and perhaps a bit embarrassing for the big man.
Yeah well Butterbean knocked James out in the first round.
I wouldn't exactly call Bean's fights super-exciting, but I am just extremely impressed at the guy's cardio. He slows down a bit as fights carry on as you would expect, but for the most part he matches speed with these guys and most of them are 100 pounds lighter than he is.
from the official UFC and MMA channel
I wouldn't watch all of that video if I were you, because there is an awful lot of hugging going on. It is worth a scan though so you can see how Bean doesn't gas out like you would expect a near 400 pound person to do.
He hasn't fought in MMA since 2011 and that is completely understandable since he had 2 losses in a row after winning the super-heavyweight title in relatively unknown promotion Elite 1. He is now in his 50's and I think for the most part his fighting days are behind him.
I imagine he would have been a big draw for UFC if they would have had him but there is a very real reason why that never happened: Eric "Butterbean" Esch is 120 pounds over the maximum weight allowed in the heaviest division that exists in UFC.
I've always considered Butterbean to be a carnival side-show at best rather than an actual fighter but I suppose by joining the ranks of what I consider to be the world's toughest combat sport, he definitely proved me wrong!