¿Could Butterbean have made it big in the 90s if he had taken boxing seriously?

He did make it big in boxing.

He did take it seriously, I think.

He was a sideshow atttraction. Nothing wrong with that. It pays bills. Lot of people would have been happy to trade purses with him.

Bean wasn’t contender material. A thing is that it is — it is not something else. He was a sideshow attraction.

 

Yep, Bean was what he was. He hit his ceiling

He was fun to watch when viewed in the right frame.

What was his best win? Flattening and leaving Johnny Knoxville snoring, maybe?

Had he trained more seriously, that would’ve likely led to a reasonable drop in weight and perhaps an undesired loss in punching power.

 

Yep that’s it, I think he took what he was doing seriously. Got in made some cash got out with his marbles it seems, knocked over a lot of guys and got to share the ring with Larry Holmes as boxing fans I think we’d trade careers with him if it meant not looking like… “that” way. There are plenty of guys better than Bean in every decent gym in America.

 

He would have been a mover and shaker in the late 40's and 50's. By the 90's he was a very successful sideshow.

 

No doubt, although I do think he had legit punching power.

It just wouldn’t matter against a better class of fighters because he couldn’t land it and they wouldn’t miss him.

 

Arum sure did like his sideshow attractions and promotions. And he could sell them to the public.

 

I think he took boxing about as seriously as he could. The man ended up fighting in what ? Like nearly 80 pro bouts ? He made a name for himself. Made some money. Did things that you’d never guess a 400 lbs man could do. Larry Merchant called him a “ fraud “ once. But he was what he was. A four round fighter.

 

I think likely not.

But for what he was, he achieved success. Probably made a lot more money than plenty of fighters who were better than he was. Nothing wrong with being the undercard fighter the crowd actually wants to watch and having actual name recognition.

 

He was the modern-day Willie Meehan.

 

Should’ve fought Brian Nielson.