From a broken man to another fight, Butterbean credits DDPY with new lease on life
Diamond Dallas Page has made a living out of helping others.
The World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer has been changing lives for over two decades with his DDPYoga program, a fusion of yoga for men who “wouldn’t be caught dead” doing yoga.
He developed it after he suffered a broken back, and soon realized that his workout regimen couldn't just enhance lives, it could save them.
Since 2004, Page has been seeing his program work miracles. We'll look at this Jersey Shore boy’s most inspirational stories through our Transformation Tuesday feature. All have a story of how DDP YOGA changed, and in many cases, saved their lives.
Eric Esch
From: Alabama
Highest weight: 510 pounds
Current weight: 285 pounds
Age: 57
Occupation: Boxer
Diamond Dallas Page is no stranger to overcoming insurmountable odds.
He’s practically an expert at it.
Whether it was proving to the naysayers that he could become a top professional wrestler at the age of 35, or coming back from what doctors told him was a career-ending back injury to helping his friend Jake “The Snake” Roberts get sober after over 30 years of addiction, there’s very little that DDP thinks is impossible.
But when boxing legend Eric “Butterbean” Esch traveled to Smyrna, Georgia, looking for Page’s help in regaining his mobility and health, the normally optimistic DDP was a little more than skeptical.
When he agreed to help Esch, he didn’t realize just how bad of shape Butterbean was in.
It was bad.
Butterbean was always a boxing anomaly. He didn’t have the traditional boxing physique and often fought north of 350 pounds, and because of this he was often underestimated. But he had serious knockout power and deceptive speed for his size.
He first made his name in the amateur “Toughman” competition, and transitioned into professional boxing. He was named “King of the Four Rounders” and out of his 91-fight career, he knocked out 58 of his opponents.
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Because of his unorthodox style and “every man” appeal, Butterbean became an instant star.
He always struggled with his weight, and toward the end of his career was close to 400 pounds. As he transitioned to MMA, the weight gain, combined with the kicks to the legs and hips and falls to the ground, took a tremendous toll on his body. Fast forward to 2022 when he sought Diamond Dallas Page out for help, and his body was a train wreck.
When he could stand, his body was bent over at a 60 degree angle and he couldn’t even lie flat in bed. He couldn’t walk without crutches, but quite often, he used a scooter. He had all but given up on having any quality of life because the pain was severe and constant.
“I don’t think we should take on someone this bad again,“ Page said to his business partner Steve Yu. “He can’t even do the normal DDPY workouts, so it’s going to be hard to get him to any type of recovery.”
Yu's response: “But imagine if we can.”
Page, Yu and their whole team had tackled some pretty tough cases in the last 10 years, so why would they not give it a go? But was the job even possible?
“You have to push the boundaries of what people THINK is possible in order to find out what truly is,” Page said.
The key was that Butterbean was willing to put in the work. You don’t become a professional fighter without having an incredible work ethic, but he was at a point of no return.
At least that’s what Page was counting on.
“To me, you have to believe in yourself, that’s the biggest thing,” Esch said. “I didn’t believe in the beginning, I never thought that I’d fight again. I was basically waiting to die. I gave away my personal stuff, it’s a terrible feeling.
“I knew Dallas for years, from doing professional wrestling, and I’d see him at conventions. I knew him and trusted him. But the biggest thing I had to do was believe in myself. I taught myself this, to accomplish any goal, you have to believe in yourself that you can accomplish it. I lost that belief. And by having someone else believe in me it helped me believe in myself.”
Page might be positive, but he’s also honest.
He told Esch that for him to go from a bent-over, shell of his former self to Butterbean again, it would require a lot of work. A lot of exercise, a lot of sacrifice and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Butterbean has been in the ring with some of the toughest guys in boxing, but he knew going in he’d never have a tougher fight on his hands than getting his life back.
He was more than willing to go the distance.
“I can accomplish anything, but I guess I had to get to the down (and have to) hit the low before he needs to get help,” Esch said.
He was so ashamed of his condition that when he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in Alabama, he didn’t even show up.
Recounting the story, Esch gets teary eyed, “I didn’t go. I was embarrassed that I was in a scooter chair and I was nearly 500 pounds.
“There was so much I needed to do. I needed to get surgery on my hips. They had actually almost fused together because of the pounding I put on it. When you’re a big guy and running all the time and fighting eight to 10 rounds, it crushes your hips, it just destroys them. I needed surgery, but was too big to get it. I needed help.”
For years he had heard the stories of how DDP YOGA had saved others lives, but it wasn’t an easy sell. For a tough guy like Esch, just hearing the word “yoga” turned him right off. Yoga is for girls, right?
Wrong.
Due to his size — he was more than 500 pounds — and his condition, the extent of Esch’s mobility was from a chair. They were starting from square one.
“I couldn't stand up straight,” Esch said. “No matter how much pushing and pulling, Dallas had me on the incline table trying to get me to lay flat. They were going to break something. I was in more pain than people can imagine.”
As each day passed, Esch and Page saw tiny steps forward.
A little bit deeper stretches, a little bit closer to standing up straight. They were baby steps for sure, but it was progress.
In the first month he lost more than 30 pounds.
“I started to believe and that was the big thing,” said Esch. “Before Dallas, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know what to do. Then when I first started, I was in a chair. I couldn’t do anything. It’s crazy how his program helped me get my heart rate up from a chair.
“It wasn’t easy, I don’t want to make it sound like it was, but it wasn’t that hard. You follow the program. I tried everything, and DDPY isn’t going to get you there on its own. You have to do it. But I was pushing myself to do more and more. It happened fast.”
Esch didn’t think it was possible to regain his quality of life back, but after just four months his orthopedic surgeon approved him for hip replacement surgery. First his right side, then his left. It was a new lease on life.
Esch went from ready to die to ready to live.
He never thought he’d be able to play with his grandkids without being stuck in a chair. Now, he’s getting around great, and is active in their lives.
“I was so driven, by the time I had my hip surgery, I was going 100 miles an hour,” Esch said. “I used the crutches for less than a week and then it wasn’t long before I threw my cane away. If you saw me before this and saw me now, you wouldn’t believe it.”
Now, he’s preparing to get back in the ring and have one final fight.
Going from crippled to wanting to fight again, talk about a shift in perspective.
And while he knows he put in the work, he credits Page for this, “I don’t know how he does it, honestly, I think people believe in him. Me, I don’t believe in anyone until I see what they can do. He does what he says he can do. He guides us.
"A lot of people are fans of his, to me he was a fellow athlete. So I got the respect, but I don’t fanboy him. That wasn’t me, he didn’t intimidate me. He drives people to achieve excellence. I trusted him because I knew what he did for himself. He had a broken back. I think it’s just crazy that something he did to fix himself has fixed thousands of people.”
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But it didn’t end at Page.
The entire DDPY community embraced Butterbean and were there for him on his journey.
“It’s a really strong community, and whatever you need, they’re there for you,” Esch said. “I keep in touch with them. It’s that strong.”
Now Butterbean’s story inspires others that they too can come back from the brink of death. Esch has always wanted to help others, and now he can give hope to those who need it.
“It’s funny, but I think Page gets more out of it than we do. I had a guy who came to me, I helped him get on DDPY. I got more out of it than he did. One guy told me he was going to kill himself until he saw my video. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. Dallas has this happen all the time.”
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It wasn’t just the workout that saved Butterbean.
It was the entire team that DDP put in place around him.
Josh Nair, a DDPY Master Trainer, worked with Esch every day as well.
It was the whole foods he was eating.
It was the positivity that surrounded him.
“It’s changed everything,” Esch said with great emotion. “My family, after I came back and started to get better, my grandkids, none of them had ever seen me walk. They said ‘Papa’s walking’. I want to walk and do things with my grandkids. Now I can.”
Now at 57, Esch has set his sights on his next goal — a comeback fight.
“Now I want to fight. If you believe in yourself, you can do anything. DDPY got my life back. Now I want to have one more fight. I’m off all medication, nothing for blood pressure, I’m 100 percent back. Never thought it would happen, but I’m here.”
“Impossible ... It’s never going to happen … there are a lot of things you can say to yourself that will become self-fulfilling prophecies,” Page concludes. “Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it … and that’s what we all did with Butterbean.”
Page and his team have moved the goal posts of what most think is possible, again. “We’re constantly discovering what’s possible, and we are kind of learning that ANYTHING is possible. You just have to believe it enough so you put the work in to make it happen.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Transformation Tuesday: DDPY turns Butterbean back into a fighter
