Butterbean, McNeeley plan to steal show

Dean Juipe

Thursday, June 17, 1999 | 9:44 a.m.

Every now and then an undercard fight comes along that is all but certain to upstage the main event. It'll have the drama and the excitement that the headlined fight lacks.

That's apt to be the case June 26 at Mandalay Bay when Eric "Butterbean" Esch and former Mike Tyson foil Peter McNeeley square off in a four-round heavyweight fight designed to support the Johnny Tapia vs. Paulie Ayala main event.

Esch and McNeeley may very well overshadow Tapia and Ayala, two relatively powerless bantamweights. Consider the contrast factor: Both of the heavyweights are notoriously big punchers, albeit with records accumulated against suspect competition.

"We'll be the best fight on the card," Esch said Wednesday during a conference call he shared with McNeeley. "You can call it entertainment if you like, but we're going to fight and it's going to be worth the money."

Esch is 48-1-1 with 39 knockouts and has earned a niche in the sport with his four-round brawls.

McNeeley is 45-4 with 34 KOs and still a curiosity in spite of -- or maybe because of -- the way Tyson overwhelmed him four years ago.

In that bout, Aug. 19, 1995 at the MGM Grand Garden, McNeeley showed some early spunk but Tyson hammered him to the canvas twice in the first round. The fight was stopped when McNeeley's cornerman jumped into the ring in an effort to end an assault that was close to getting out of hand.

"I've been through the biggest show of all time," McNeeley said of facing Tyson in what was the ex-champion's first fight after being released from an Indiana prison. "I got a little drunk with all the fame and publicity."

He has since sobered up.

"I'm taking this seriously," he said. "I know we're both going into the ring to do the same thing. People think Butterbean has an advantage in a four-round fight, but I also think it's to my advantage because I can get tired in six or eight rounds.

"Four rounds I can do in my sleep."

McNeeley, 30, is training at Boston College and says he's in ideal condition.

"My physical and mental state is as good as it was for the Tyson fight," he said. "But I'm lighter and faster and more mature and wiser."

He said he'll weigh around 215 pounds, which is down from the 224 he carried into the ring against Tyson.

Esch, of course, is very rotund and will hit the scales at his usual 315.

"I've fought a ton of tough people," he said, discounting speculation that McNeeley may be too skilled for him. "I've got 40-plus wins and I feel I'm pretty legitimate."

Esch, also 30, is a fighting machine in more ways than one, cramming 50 fights into a professional career that didn't begin until November of '94, and cramming three full minutes of action into each of his rounds.

"People like to see fast action," he said. "In a four-round fight there's no time to waste. Plus, I always try to go for the knockout."

The quick pace figures to sit well with McNeeley, who has 23 first-round knockouts.

"Like Eric, I come to fight," he said. "People get sick of watching heavyweights holding and grappling and wrestling. It's disgusting."

Since losing to Tyson, McNeeley is 9-2, with two of those victories coming as the result of disqualifications when his opponents were guilty of excessive holding. In his most recent fight, Feb. 12, McNeeley failed to survive the third round against Danish tough guy Brian Nielsen.

This fight with Esch gives McNeeley a shot at some measure of redemption. Likewise, a victory would allow Esch to at least vocalize his beliefs that he can fight with the best of them.

Unlike the Tapia-Ayala fight, there's no legitimate title at stake, yet in terms of fan appeal, Esch vs. McNeeley has everything the main event is missing.