Lyndon Byers’ Fight With Butterbean Canceled Due to Inexperience

The debut of MMA in Massachusetts, which is headlined by Tim Sylvia taking on Mariusz Pudzianowski, was also supposed to include a match between Eric “Butterbean” Esch and former Bruins enforcer Lyndon Byers. The fight, however, was called off due to the commission being hesitant over Byers’ lack of experience.

“Unfortunately, L.B. doesn’t have the experience it’s going to take to do a real fight,” Butterbean said. “To go in there and do anything but a real fight … it just wouldn’t be what people wanted.”

He said, however, in the end it worked out for the best anyway, as they accomplished their original goal of raising money for a charity, benefiting the family of Worcester police officer Mark Bisnette, who was killed in a car accident last January.

Butterbean did go on to say he wouldn’t have had any hard feelings over fighting a friend.

“I don’t mind knocking out a friend,” he said. “I’m not saying I would have knocked L.B. out, I’m just saying I wouldn’t have minded to knock him out if it was there.”

The God of Martial Arts show is at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass., on Friday night. The doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the first fight of the 10-fight card starts at 8 p.m. For more information, visit moosinusa.com or DCUcenter.com.