{"id":237726,"date":"2025-07-04T15:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/237726\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:26:09","slug":"boxing-icon-butterbean-claims-crazy-rule-is-all-that-prevented-him-from-fighting-in-the-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/237726\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing icon Butterbean claims \u2018crazy\u2019 rule is all that prevented him from fighting in the UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Butterbean has looked back at what could\u2019ve been for his 28-fight MMA career. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The heavyweight boxing legend \u2013 real name Eric Esch \u2013 made his name inside the squared circle. <\/p>\n

However, Butterbean<\/a> also fought some big names from the world of MMA before his run in the sport was ended by a head kick KO loss to a taekwondo instructor<\/a> who became a politician in October 2011. <\/p>\n

The 58-year-old fought for all the big MMA promotions, except the UFC, due to a rule he calls \u2018crazy\u2019. <\/p>\n

\"EricPhoto by Daniel Berehulak\/Getty ImagesButterbean explains why he never fought for the UFC<\/p>\n

The UFC heavyweight weight limit is 266lbs for a non-title fight, while those competing for MMA\u2019s ultimate prize have to come in 1lb lighter. <\/p>\n

During his peak years, Butterbean weighed between 350lbs and 400lbs, making him ineligible for a UFC call-up.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s capable of making the UFC heavyweight limit after completing a remarkable 220lb body transformation after ballooning up to 500lbs after retiring<\/a> in 2013. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had almost 50 MMA fights total,\u201d Butterbean said during an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow. <\/p>\n

\u201cI fought in Pride, K1, and Cage Rage. I fought in almost all of them except the UFC because they have this crazy rule that you have to be under 265lbs. Come on, guys. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow I could get there. I\u2019m at 280lbs right now, and I could get down to 260 if they would let me fight. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut with my new hips, I can\u2019t fight UFC.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Butterbean didn\u2019t train for famous MMA win <\/p>\n

Butterbean proved himself in MMA<\/a> with a 43-second KO against a 6ft 5in \u2018Colossus\u2019 in 2007. <\/p>\n

James Thompson retired in 2017, with a 39-fight record, which includes wins over renowned referee Marc Goddard,\u00a0UFC<\/a>\u00a0legend Dan Severn, WWE superstar Bobby Lashley, and five-time \u2018World\u2019s Strongest Man\u2019 Mariusz Pudzianowski<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Englishman was known for keeping his fights standing, but that didn\u2019t always work out well for him.<\/p>\n

Butterbean knocked him out in a shocking upset when they fought at Cage Rage 20 in London, England. <\/p>\n

18 years later, the American KO machine has confessed he didn\u2019t even train for his fight with Thompson. <\/p>\n

\u201cJames Thompson was a really tough dude,\u201d Butterbean said. It was a really tough challenge for me. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe crazy thing is, at that point in my life, I had almost started not believing in myself, and I wasn\u2019t training like I should\u2019ve. I never even stepped in the gym before my fight with James Thompson. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had trained for that fight, it would\u2019ve been quicker than the first round.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Butterbean has looked back at what could\u2019ve been for his 28-fight MMA career. The heavyweight boxing legend \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,7928,5705,79,5706,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-237726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-butterbean","10":"tag-mma","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-ufc","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114795668102403729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}