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Recently released from prison,
and with only three amateur
fights, expectations were
limited despite Lionel showing
some talent in the gym. He lost
a four-round decision to
Jackson, and the story-line of
his early career was set when he
was matched with Olympic silver
medalist Riddick Bowe only two
weeks later.
Clearly over-matched against
future Hall-of-Famer Bowe, who
was making his pro debut, Butler
was stopped in the second round.
While he won his third paid
fight, on points over debutant
Michael Carroll, there were no
signs that “The Train” was
heading anywhere but
Journeymanville.
In August of 1989 Butler lost in
two rounds to Cleveland Woods
(4-1), and, in another gross
mismatch, he closed out that
year with another inside the
distance defeat at the hands of
future world title-challenger
James Pritchard (21-4-2),
managing to last six rounds.
Matched more sensibly, he scored
a decision over debutant Troy
Jefferson in January 1990, and
two weeks later he showed some
of his potential when he upset
undefeated prospect Jerry Goff
(10-0), stopping the favorite in
the second round at the
Municipal Auditorium in New
Orleans.
Over the next twenty-one months
Butler won three more fights and
drew once, but lost 6 times,
including a ten-round split
decision to Oliver McCall (14-3)
who would go on to win the WBC
World Championship by stopping
legendary Lennox Lewis in London
four years later.
With a less than impressive
6-10-1 (2) record, it was hard
to blame anyone for not
predicting a bright future in
the ring for Lionel Butler. But
amazingly, after losing a split
decision to Kevin Ford (10-1) at
the Great Western Forum in
Inglewood, California in April
of 1991, Butler´s career took a
massive turn for the better.
Respected trainer Joe Goosen saw
that Butler´s potential was much
better than the subpar
statistics suggested, and
convinced his brother,
accomplished promoter Dan
Goosen, to sign him up. With the
protection and guidance of Dan
and Joe, and much better
training conditions, Butler
started to flourish.
As a regular on Goosen´s shows
at the Reseda Country Club,
Butler went unbeaten in his next
seventeen bouts! After six wins
in seven months, the first big
test of his new career was
against former WBA world
champion Tony Tubbs (30-3) on
August 18 1992 at the Bayfront
Auditorium in Pensacola,
Florida.
Tubbs had only lost to Tim
Witherspoon by majority
decision, to Mike Tyson by
second round stoppage, and to
Riddick Bowe by ten-round
decision, and was still
considered top class. Butler
however was unimpressed, and
came out firing on all
cylinders, knocking Tubbs out
with a short left hook in the
first round.
With the Tubbs annihilation
televised by the USA Network,
Lionel Butler was starting to
make a name for himself, and
after a stay-busy victory over
trial-horse John Morton (10-22)
he won the vacant IBO world
title in February 1993 with a
fifth round technical knockout
of Tony Willis (21-5).
Four more victories followed,
against mediocre opposition,
before a third round stoppage of
another former WBA world
champion, James “Bonecrusher”
Smith (39-12-1), confirmed that
Butler was not just a one-hit
wonder. But unfortunately he
struggled with substance abuse,
which resulted in a positive
drug test and him being stripped
of the IBO crown.
In February 1994 he stopped
Jerry Jones (9-7) in the first
round, and in April got rid of
Eric Curry (21-3) in the third.
But when Butler again tested
positive for an illegal
substance, the Curry-result was
later changed to a No-Contest,
and, for whatever reason, he
decided to severe ties with the
Goosens.
"You could see what was
happening" Dan Goossen told The
L.A. Times in 1996. "He was
virtually not training. It's a
sad story. Sometimes you get on
the wrong road in life.
I always liked Lionel. I didn't
want to take him on because of
his record, but Joe was
impressed with him and he
twisted my arm. Then I thought
he was tremendous. Believe me, I
never wanted him to leave."
After almost a year out of the
ring, Butler returned in March
1995 to stop no-hoper James
Flowers (6-8-2) in one round at
the Memorial Auditorium in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. Having
signed with the most famous
promoter of all time, Don King,
his career seemed to be going
well again as King secured him a
WBC final eliminator against
Lennox Lewis.
But against Lewis (25-1), in May
of 1995, Butler came in at the
heaviest weight so far in his
career, 118,4 Kgs. (261 Lbs.),
and looked horrible as the
Englishman destroyed him in five
rounds in front of more than
8000 fans at the Acro Arena in
Sacramento, California.
The loss to Lewis send Butler on
a downward spiral of not
training properly, and
continuing his self-destructive
ways with partying and doing
drugs. He managed to defeat
over-the-hill Mexican Mauricio
Villegas (22-11) in his first
fight back in March 1996, but
was stopped by a soft-punching
Chris Byrd (15-0) in April.
Shortly after the Byrd-loss,
Butler was arrested on a
marijuana-possession charge and
spent five weeks in jail. Things
were looking very bad for him
again, but it would prove too
early to write him off
completely, and following his
release he signed on with
Mansfield Collins as his
co-manager, a California
attorney who still saw
opportunities to get “The Train”
back on track.
To the L.A. Times, Collins said:
"He is, probably not the
heavyweight champion of the
world right now because of
drugs. The new Lionel Butler,
you're not going to see him come
into the ring overweight. He's
the best of Mike Tyson and the
best of Joe Frazier, when he's
serious and committed."
Big words indeed, but after
undergoing drug rehabilitation
treatment a rededicated Butler
didn’t disappoint his new team.
Back in shape and with new
focus, he stopped Salvador
Maciel (21-10) and Bomani Parker
(14-3-1), to line up a crack at
the vacant WBF World Heavyweight
title in January 1997.
With big names Rafael Ruelas and
Jorge Arce squaring off on the
undercard, Butler tore through
Marcos Gonzalez (17-7-1) from
Mexico, forcing a first round
knockout. With a fierce
body-attack he brought Gonzalez
guards down, before sending him
to the canvas twice with
overhand rights.
The WBF world title belt
strapped around his waist, a
jubilant Butler said after the
short fight: “This time I don’t
have to worry about any test
being positive. This is just the
tip of the iceberg...”
But unfortunately it wouldn’t be
long before the iceberg started
to melt. In his very next fight,
on April 19 1997, Butler
headlined a show at the Las
Vegas Hilton against undefeated
Michael Grant (23-0) and was
disqualified in the fourth
round.
Butler was deducted a point for
a headbutt in the second round,
deducted a second point for a
blatant low-blow in the third
round, and eventually
disqualified by referee Richard
Steele for another low-blow in
round four. Much of the momentum
he had rebuild were now gone
again, and he never defended his
WBF world title.
The following October Butler won
a rematch with Cleveland Woods
(now 14-13), but would be out of
the ring for over a year before
traveling to Denmark to face
Brian Nielsen (44-0) for his old
IBO title in November of 1998.
Nielsen stopped an uninspired
Butler in the first round, and
that was the last time Butler
competed for a world
championship.
It looked as if the journey was
over for Butler as a fighter,
but in January 2002 he launched
a comeback and won four straight
against poor opposition.
Weighing as much as 132,5 Kgs.
(292 Lbs.), he was nowhere near
his best days and in September
2003 it took Andre Purlette
(36-2) only two rounds to beat
Butler.
After six years of retirement he
almost miraculously returned to
win a split decision over
undefeated prospect Fred Kassi
(12-0) in September 2009, but at
42 years of age he finished his
career with two defeats in 2010,
to Andrey Fedosov (20-1) and
Damian Wills (27-2-1).
Former WBF World Heavyweight
Champion Lionel Butler retired
with a professional ledger of
32-17-1 (25), and these days
reside in Venice, California.
While he accomplished a lot
under the circumstances, his
record would undoubtedly have
been even better had he had
better management early on, and
with a better lifestyle there is
no telling how successful he
could have been.
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