I'm a fat guy with a big waist, no neck and a huge chest - but very sexy!

Esch was a "regular guy" working in a factory building mobile homes and one pay cheque away from being made homeless when he came across Toughman.

The televised street fighting competition gives members of the public the chance to kick lumps out of each other for a crack at a $1,000 (�640) prize.

There is only one rule. No biting.

Esch entered, won, made as much money in one night as he could in a month on the production line, and a career was born.

That was 10 years ago, when Esch weighed a regal 31 stones (420lb).

He decided he wanted to try his hand at the professional fight game - which meant slimming down below the 400lb barrier.

"I tried the Butterbean diet, which consisted of nothing but butterbeans and chicken."

Kids, and Americans, get the joke

He lost three stones in two weeks but gained his name, which he says is now one of the ten most recognised in world boxing.

He is also very proud of the fact that his character is also the most popular in Playstation's Knockout Kings 2001 computer game.

Kids, and Americans - there are 23,000 members of his fan club - get the joke.

But the British are apparently a bit more sceptical, uneasy that his comic capers are turning the sport into a freak show.

In London to promote his forthcoming fight at Wembley Conference Centre (he can't tell me the name of his opponent, he says he likes surprises), the country's press have been pretty scathing.

The Raging Blancmange was how one paper described him.

But Americans, who have long-since dispensed with boundaries between competition and entertainment, actors and sportstars, love him.

Some fighters do backflips after a knockout but I'm just a tad too big for that

Mr Butterbean

Esch's record reads 66 wins and one defeat

Many boxers claim to have no ego but Butterbean appears genuinely without front.

In fact he is so genial it is difficult to get to the bottom of him, so to speak, as he's too busy playing the part.

"Do I eat loads? No. But you can say I do if you want."

He obligingly describes his visit to England as the highlight of his career.

Jokingly, he tells BBC Radio 5 Live listeners he is hoping to meet The Queen for a cup of tea.

"I was fooling around you know," he says later. "But I know fighters from the States would have been serious."

I'm a joker, that's my way of relaxing from the pressures of being in the ring

Mr Butterbean