When Worlds Collide: Part 1

When Worlds Collide: Part 1

By Henry Walter

Boxing has long been arguably the world’s most popular combat sport. Fights such as Jack Dempsey’s million dollar match with George Carpentier in 1921 right up to Floyd Mayweather’s 2015 mega fight with Manny Pacquiao have helped to solidify boxing’s position throughout recent history.

It is a testament to boxing’s ongoing popularity that boxing great Floyd Mayweather’s  fight with UFC star Conor McGregor was one of the highest grossing fights of all time.

Crossover fights are not a new phenomenon. Curious fight fans have often wondered how other combat forms and combatants would perform against boxing. Whilst many fights have been claimed to be the first to pit two fighting disciplines against each other in actual fact the earliest records of such fights date back to over one hundred years ago. It’s extremely probable that such contests took place far earlier still.

Over the next few days I will list the most famous examples of fighters from other disciplines fighting boxers under a variety of different rule sets.

Bart Gunn vs Butterbean: 

In 1998 the then World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) decided to veer away from fixed fights towards real mixed rules fights for a one-off tournament.

The result was the WWF’s Brawl for All. Sixteen of the WWF’s wrestlers would compete in mixed rules fights that allowed both punching and wrestling takedowns.

The event proved something of a disaster. The WWF’s favoured wrestlers had little impact in the tournament and the tournament put several prominent performers on the injured list. In the end it was won by Bart Gunn (real name Michael Polchlpek) who knocked out Bradshaw (John Layfield) in the final.

The WWF then decided to match the victorious Gunn with professional boxer Butterbean (Eric Esch) at WrestleMania XV in another Brawl for All match.

The fight was heavily publicised but ultimately proved to be disastrous for Gunn who was knocked out by the boxer just thirty-five seconds into the fight. The WWF wisely abandoned the format thereafter.