When it comes down to men who have donned the stars and stripes on their boxing trunks, only two matter:
Happy 4th of July. Here are some Butterbean knockouts
A man in American flag trunks and fireworks. What more could you want?
- Apollo Creed
- Eric “Butterbean” Esch
As much as I would love to write you a 500-word breakdown on Creed’s Living in America entrance in the opening minutes of Rocky IV, the legendary boxer is, alas, fictional. Esch, on the other hand, is exceedingly real and a sigil of the American dream.
Esch is living proof that any man built like a Boston Cream donut can work his way into the national spotlight. The 5’11, 425-pound house renovator went from flooring houses to international celebrity thanks to a bored nation’s love of unsanctioned brain trauma. His rise through the ranks of the American Toughman circuit — four-round fights between often heavyset amateurs in dive bars across the U.S. — created a minor celebrity, instantly recognizable by his bald head, ovoid body, and American flag shorts.
He’d move on from pieced-together rinks in dank downtown bars to legit arenas across the world in a career that spanned from unsanctioned boxing matches to MMA fights in Japan’s PRIDE organization. He’d even last 10 rounds against former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes. Granted, this was in 2002 when Holmes was 53 years old...but still. that’s better than Muhammad Ali did.
In honor of the legend, his American trunks, and his American dream, please enjoy these clips of Esch — the one true Mr. Bean — absolutely obliterating opponents in the ring.
We’ll start off gently. Here he is turning former heavyweight title contender Peter McNeely into a zombie in less than one round back in 1999.
There’s the time the the WWE ventured into Toughman-style shoot fighting, then paid Esch six figures to obliterate former tag team champion Bart Gunn at Wrestlemania XV:
Here’s Esch destroying a laundry list of younger, much fitter opponents:
Here he is playing Goliath to Genki Sudo’s David, basically shrugging off a flying dropkick before falling victim to a heel hook from the much smaller man.
Here’s another compilation, this time stretching across all three disciplines of Esch’s career:
And finally, from probably his most-watched fight, here’s Butterbean knocking the 3th grade arithmetic from Johnny Knoxville’s brain.
“Is Butterbean OK?” Yes, Johnny. Butterbean is great. Butterbean is America. Happy 4th of July
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