‘bean fight paves way for sons

For more than 20 years, Eric “Butterbean” Esch has headlined boxing events all around the world.

But in what might have been his final boxing bout of his career, the world-famous fighter changed the script Friday night at “A Lion and His Pride” in the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.

Instead of fighting in the main event, Butterbean fought in the mid-card, yielding to his sons, who are just beginning their professional MMA careers.

It was a move the storied fighter said symbolizes out with the old and in with the new for the family of Esch fighters.

“That’s it. That’s what it’s all about,” Esch said. “I’m doing a lot of promoting now and both of my sons are fighting on this card, so why not come out and show a little bit of exhibition boxing for those fans out there, too? That’s what we did.”

Regardless of his position on the card, the fans ate up every moment of the “old man’s” fight – a three-round exhibition boxing bout with Houma native Darrin Carline.

Judges did not score the fight, but despite the lack of a winner or a loser, both fighters said they had fun going all-out in the middle of the ring.

“You know, we come to entertain the people,” Butterbean said. “It was an exhibition fight, so I stepped in there to have a good time. I had a blast.”

Butterbean and Carline exchanged blows all throughout the fight with Carline getting the better of the action enough to deem himself the winner.

Judging by the crowd’s reaction, they agreed, standing and cheering with every blow the Houma native landed throughout the fight.

“I was the clear winner,” Carline said. “It’s easy to see I landed more punches than him.”

In the final 30 seconds of the third and final round of the fight and with both fighters visibly sucking wind, the action kicked into high gear with both fighters flaring at one another.

“We just said to ourselves, ‘Lets go at it now,’ you know?” Butterbean said. “We knew we had to keep it down low key at the beginning because it was an exhibition, but for those 30 seconds, we went at it. It was a good time.”

Carline agreed and said the action flipped into another gear with the final seconds of the fight winding down.

“I turned it on right there,” Carline said. “I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ We both went for it … it was fun.”

The bout could mark the end of Butterbean’s storied boxing career.

He said he has MMA fights scheduled overseas, but he doesn’t believe he will ever step into the ring for a boxing match again.

“I’m not doing any more in the U.S.,” Butterbean said. “I think I’m done here. I’m going to leave it up to the boys now. Let the boys fight.”

The Houma native, Carline, said if Friday does indeed go down as the legendary fighter’s last bout, he will forever be grateful to say he was the last person to fight the famous boxer.

“That’s a great honor,” Carline said. “I wanted to fight him one more time.”

With their father done for the night, Esch’s sons stepped into the ring in an attempt to try and make a name for themselves on the fighting scene.

Things didn’t go the way they had planned.

Caleb Esch took the stage first and was forced to tap out of an arm bar from Houma native Jacob Quick, who improved his MMA record to 3-1.

Quick rode a wave of hometown support en route to the win.

“Oh, man, it was awesome,” Quick said. “The crowd helped me out a lot. I had all my family here. I live with all these people. It was just awesome.”

In the final fight of the night, another Houma native, Billy Marcel wasted little time defeating Brandon “Little Bean” Esch, winning via strikes to the face just 12 seconds into the first round.

The win marked the first of Marcel’s professional career.

“He slipped and I got on top of him and hurt him enough to where they needed to stop it,” Marcel said. “It’s great. It feels awesome to finally have that first win.”

World famous boxer Eric “Butterbean” Esch stares down Houma native Darrin Carline at Saturday’s fight. The bout was Butterbean’s last on American soil. CASEY GISCLAIR