Butterbean famously fought Johnny Knoxville in a department store boxing stunt for the first Jackass movie, leaving the MTV star with stitches and a concussion after knocking him out cold
Butterbean left Johnny Knoxville “dizzy for six weeks” after knocking him out in a department store. The legendary boxer, whose real name is Eric Esch, became a cult hero thanks to his knockout power, massive size and stature and unprecedented four-round bouts.
Weighing in between 300 and 400lbs during his heyday, Butterbean racked up an incredible record of 77-10-4 – with 57 knockouts – before hanging up his gloves in 2013, but many fans may only know him from his cameo in the first Jackass movie which released in 2002.
The scene, entitled “Department Store Boxing” opens with Butterbean and Knoxville on their way to the setting of their bout, with the Jackass lead asking the pugilist what his fastest knockout time was. To which, the now Atlanta-born boxer replied: “Well, the California state record’s like 18 seconds including the ten count,” before Knoxville nervously replied: “I think you’re going to break that today.”
Both wearing ring walk robes and kitted out with boxing gloves and shorts, surrounded by an entourage carrying signs such as “round one”, Knoxville and Butterbean then entered a department store before makeshift referee Loomis Fall said: “All right you guys, touch gloves and come out fighting,” before ringing a bell he was carrying around his neck.
The two then immediately started exchanging blows as staff and shoppers watched the bizarre bout go down. Unsurprisingly, Butterbean dropped Knoxville, who had no professional boxing experience, in around 10 seconds with a flurry of hard hooks to the head and the body. Not done there though, the fighter told him to “get up” before allowing him to hit him with a right cross.
As soon as the punch connected, Butterbean pounced back on Knoxville, knocking him out cold with a hard right hook and leaving him audibly snoring on the floor of the shop. Scenes then showed Knoxville, whose real name is Phillip John Clapp, on his way to hospital to have a cut on his head stitched up, as Butterbean was announced the winner of the unofficial bout.
In an exclusive interview with Mirror Fighting via Lucky Energy, Butterbean, now 58, has recalled how the opportunity to star in Jackass came about. He said: “The funny thing, I get people come up to me all the time and go, do you remember knocking out Johnny? As if I’m the one that got knocked out and I forgot.
“Yeah. I mean, they called me up and I thought it was a prank at first. I said, sure, I’ll do a movie with you. I didn’t realise it was a real thing. My son goes, ‘You better ask what they want you to do.’
“And I, so when I got there, I said, well, what do you want me to do, Johnny? He goes, we want you to knock me out. I said, ‘Okay.’ And later he tells me, he goes, ‘I really got scared then’. He said, he don’t get scared much. He said, but when you agreed to knock me out so quick, he goes, ‘I got terrified.’”
On the aftermath of the fight, Butterbean also added that Knoxville was unable to stand up without feeling dizzy for around six weeks. He added: “I did ask Johnny, if he wanted to rematch…We’d done the family feud together. I asked Johnny, I go, ‘Do you want to rematch?’ And he said, no.
“He goes, ‘I had vertigo for six weeks after that.’ He goes, ‘I couldn’t even walk towards stand up without getting sick’. We’re really good friends. Me, Jeff, Jermaine, the whole, the whole group. We’re really all good friends now.”
It comes as Butterbean has undergone a remarkable weight-loss transformation and is now plotting one last showdown in the ring before retiring for good, with Jake Paul at the top of his list of targets. Thanks to a rigorous yoga routine alongside WWE superstar ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page, Butterbean was able to shed 200lbs and defy doctors who told him he would never walk again after being constrained to a wheelchair as a result of weighing more than 500lbs at his heaviest.
The star recently called out Paul in a promotional video to celebrate the launch of his new Butterbean’s Knockout Punch flavoured drink with Lucky Energy, which the brand describes as “a tropical mix of pineapple, orange, cherry, with a heavy kick of nostalgia fruit punch.”
During the video, Butterbean said: “Butterbean’s back for one more fight. There’s only one fighter out there that wants to fight retired, bald guys. Jake Paul, I’m coming for you. I want to fight Jake Paul because he runs his damn mouth too much.”
Butterbean spoke to Mirror Fighting as part of his collaboration with Lucky Energy. You can find out more about his brand-new Butterbean’s Knockout Punch flavour here.