Eric Scott Esch, better known as Butterbean, stood in front of boxing giants without backing down. Not even Mike Tyson made him hesitate when he issued him a public challenge in 2020. But there is one fight he fought away from the cameras, and that one cost him much more.
At 58, the former heavyweight champion confessed to The Mirror that he had struggled with a sex addiction since school, when being overweight made him a target of ridicule and his female classmates ignored him. That childhood wound turned over the years into a problem that put his marriage to Libby Gaskin to the test.
“I’ve been married for a long time and have always loved my wife, but that was something I always struggled to overcome”, he admitted. Today, he says he has left the addiction behind and that, with the same confidence that led him to challenge Tyson, he is ready for his next fight: the one in the ring.