Feb 27, 2010 - Eric Esch, the fighter better known as Butterbean, claims he's going to promote a mixed martial arts show in Worcester, Mass., on April 23 that will feature a main event of Tim Sylvia vs. Mariusz Pudzianowski.
Butterbean, who promoted a show in Alabama in December along with the Korean promoter Moosin, tells the Boston Herald that he and his co-promoters also have former UFC fighters Rich Clementi, Yves Edwards and Houston Alexander on board. Butterbean himself will not be fighting on the card.
Pudzianowski is a five-time World's Strongest Man whose MMA debut last year drew a lot of attention in his native Poland and a fair amount in the United States as well. Sylvia is a former UFC heavyweight champion whose career has gone into a downward spiral with some embarrassing losses over the last couple of years. A fight between them would certainly attract a lot of attention, in the same way that train wrecks attract a lot of attention.
But it's a long shot that this actually takes place. MMA was just legalized in Massachusetts, and the local officials probably aren't too keen on the idea of a main event that has "freak show" written all over it.
Sylvia recently tried to book a fight in Ohio against Wes Sims, only to be turned down because the Ohio commission said it wasn't competitive. Athletic commissions have recently shown an increased willingness to assert themselves in stopping fights from happening if they match up opponents with disparate levels of experience, and Sylvia vs. Pudzianowski might not get OK'd.
And if it does get OK'd? Yes, I'd watch. The same way I'd watch a train wreck. With part of me feeling some morbid fascination, and a bigger part of me just hoping no one gets killed.
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