The story of Butterbean’s final MMA fight
Bowman boasted a 2-0 MMA record heading into his fight with Butterbean, which was born out of a desire to save Prestige Fighting Championship, which was in debt and on the verge of going out of business.
The idea was to attract a big name that was ‘almost unbeatable’ to Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada.
“Win or lose, people would come to the event,” Bowman told CBC News in 2021.
Butterbean tipped the scale at 377lbs dwarfing his 209lb opponent, who seemed destined to get KO’d.
However, that’s not how things played out. Bowman connected with a clean head kick inside the first 30 seconds before following Butterbean to the floor and overwhelming him with ground strikes until he tapped out inside the first minute of round one.
“Crazy. I’m just on cloud nine,” Bowman said during a post-fight interview with Top MMA News.
“As soon as I hit him, his eyes rolled back and I was like, ‘Thank you!’
Where are they now?
Bowman walked away from MMA with a perfect 3-0 professional record after beating Butterbean.
Since then, he’s been appointed Mayor of Wood Buffalo, a position he holds today and has done for the past three years.
The man he beat went back to boxing and continued to compete for a couple more years before hanging up his gloves in 2013. Butterbean retried from all combat sports after 126 fights across boxing, kickboxing, and MMA.
During his time on the sidelines, Butterbean’s weight ballooned up to 515lbs. The 58-year-old worried that it could become a fatal issue, so he underwent a dramatic body transformation that saw him lose over 200lbs in weight
Today he tips the scales at around 300lbs, which is what he weighed during his peak years as a fighter.
“It changed my life, it really did,” Butterbean said about his body transformation.
“Honestly, I thought I had a couple of years left to live. I’m not bulls*******.
“I really forgot who I was, and I pretty much gave up on life.
“Now I believe in myself again. Butterbean is back for one more fight.”
In the past, Butterbean making a comeback would’ve been almost impossible. However, Mike Tyson is the same age as him and his recent fight with Jake Paul attracted 60 million people to Netflix.
Now it’s just a matter of finding the right opponent for Butterbean’s last hurrah.
Bumpin Good Read
I always liked this fight, he proved he could go 10 rounds, granted Larry was 52 but he was still game for a fight like this. If Butter was just a little taller he would have been a monster but nothing wrong with being just a beast.
How he got to over 500 lbs? What caused his back issues? He’s bent over like an old man.
I’m sure being massively fat doesn’t help.
Damn
This piece is great on Bean
