BOXING / STEVE SPRINGER : Unfortunately, He Can’t Fight for Beans

The voice is gentle. The manner is polite. The handshake is warm.

But the head is shaved. The face is menacing. The body is large.

Put it all together and you have Butterbean, the newest sideshow in boxing’s traveling circus.

His real name is Eric Esch, a former worker in a mobile-home factory in his hometown, Jasper, Ala., who first stepped into the ring as a 400-pounder in Toughman tournaments and now wants to step into the ring as a 300-pounder against Mike Tyson.

Uh, not so fast, says his trainer, Murray Sutherland, himself a former International Boxing Federation super-middleweight champion.

“The guy has got what it takes, as far as charisma,” Sutherland said of Esch. “All we’ve got to do is to teach him how to fight.”

One small matter.

But there is no argument about the charisma. Thursday night at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, the weigh-in was held for Friday night’s nine-fight card. There was Gabriel Ruelas, the World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion. There was Azumah Nelson, Ruelas’ challenger and himself a former two-time world champion. There was Sugar Ray Leonard, a five-time title holder now serving as co-manager of junior bantamweight Johnny Tapia.

But as the fighters streamed out, who was it the fans, autograph seekers and well wishers wanted?

Butterbean, the great white hype.

Esch says he was happy building mobile homes when he got into this on a dare. His friends wanted to see how he would do in the Toughman competition, which can best be described as a form of fighting one step up from a bar-room brawl. Fighters use 16-ounce gloves, fight one-minute rounds and may face as many as six opponents in a single night. Esch’s friends told him they would pay the $50 entry fee to see him in action.

But Esch weighed 420 pounds, 20 pounds over the limit.

So he went on a strict diet. A butter bean diet.

“They are white lima beans,” Esch said. “I also ate some potatoes and other stuff. But basically, I ate butter beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

He slimmed down to a svelte 400 pounds and found himself in his first Toughman competition.

Fans immediately took to him, cheering him on with cries of “Butterbean! Butterbean!”

And so, he was Eric Esch no more.

He did well in the ring, advancing from local to regional to “world” competition, twice finishing as the runner-up in the finals. Those were the only defeats of his 47-bout Toughman career.

But the competition became harder and harder to find.

“I was pretty much banned,” Esch said. “People were dropping out rather than fight me. I sold plenty of tickets, but there was nobody to fight.”

So was it back to the mobile-home factory?

Art Dore, a fight manager, had a better idea. He hooked Esch up with Sutherland and launched Esch’s career as a boxer.

Sort of.

“I’ve never been a boxer,” said Esch, 29, who is 14-0 with nine knockouts after he stopped Louis Monaco in the first round Friday night in Indio. “I don’t claim to be. I like to fight, not box. When fighters just box, the people don’t holler and scream. When you get real aggressive, that’s when the people get up and holler and scream. That’s what people want to see.”

What Sutherland would like to see from Esch is something he has never considered--defense.

Esch has never ducked an opponent, or a punch, reveling in standing in the middle of the ring and exchanging roundhouse blows.

“That works in one-minute rounds,” Sutherland said. “But now he’s got to learn to use his shoulders in punching, to move.”

Although Esch brashly talks about fighting Tyson, Sutherland has more modest goals.

“We don’t want [Esch] to be a circus attraction,” Sutherland said. “We want him to fight someone who has been there, but is on his way out. Right now, we don’t want anybody who can do more than tie their shoelaces.”

They might have found an opponent who fits that description. Esch has agreed to fight Peter McNeeley in February. McNeeley lasted 89 seconds against Tyson.

*

Leonard loves being back in boxing as Tapia’s co-manager.

“It has given me new life,” Leonard said. “I can live vicariously through him.”

But the longtime boxing superstar won’t take his involvement to the level of actually getting back into the ring and sparring with Tapia.

“That would create speculation about a comeback,” said Leonard, who now lives in Los Angeles and is interested in an acting career.

So, at 39, five years removed from his last fight, there is no chance of a comeback?

“There are only two fighters I would ever consider coming back against,” Leonard said. “[Marvin] Hagler and [Roberto] Duran.”

Leonard says his relationship with the retired Hagler, whom he beat in a classic 1987 battle, remains strained. He is friendly with Duran, who still is fighting in his 40s, but Leonard says he and Duran have not seriously discussed another bout.

End of subject?

In boxing? No such thing.

Boxing Notes

The decision to reject the proposed Mike Tyson-Buster Mathis Jr. heavyweight match in Atlantic City on Dec. 16 was a unanimous one, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission voting 4-0. Although Donald Trump had applied as the promoter, New Jersey officials weren’t about to let Don King, Tyson’s promoter, do an end run on them. They had already forbidden King from doing business in the state because of his indictment on fraud charges. King’s trial ended in a hung jury and he is awaiting a retrial.

“The interest in staging the fights was outweighed by [the importance of] maintaining the integrity of casino regulations,” commission chairman Bradford Smith said. Responded King, “I’ve never been convicted of nothing. I’ve been accused. That’s all. In New Jersey, the Constitution is not applicable.” The fight will now be held in Philadelphia’s Spectrum on Dec. 16.

Calendar

Friday--Luis Ramon “Yory Boy” Campas vs. Javier Altamirano, welterweights; Ysajas Zamudio vs. TBA, flyweight, Olympic Auditorium, 8 p.m.