Last month we introduced you to the McDowell County Giant Bucky Boyd, a 7-foot, 400-pound West Virginia toughman with an ill-placed boner, a basic knowledge of video editing and a line delivery that made his rematch with “Tree” a must-see encounter. It was innocent and honest. The kind of thing you’d expect to see from a local, backwoods fight promotion. Then, like so much Michelle Jenneke, the Internet got a hold of it.
Suddenly, Bucky Boyd was a “star.” Instead of being a weird, goofy sounding guy with a camera in front of him, Bucky became a guy trying to get over by being a guy in front of a camera. He started playing up his schtick, recording three (!) follow-up videos to further explain why TREE WILL FALL, and while they were funny enough, they weren’t really the same. It’s the difference between a guy putting a tampon in a teacup to express himself and being discovered as a brilliant artist, and a guy who won’t stop putting tampons in teacups and trying to sell them on Etsy. Does that make sense? God, I hope this doesn’t make me a Bucky Boyd hipster.
Anyway, let’s revisit those clips. They’re all important in the grand build to the Tree rematch (Treematch?) from Friday. Yes, we’ve got video of that, too.
Bucky Boyd, part 2. The “Rough and Rowly” challenge starts to involve Tree, who is clearly just trolling. Bucky won’t stop talking about trains and piss. He’s got an ambulance prop, he’s growling (come on) and he’s clearly just cutting a wrestling promo.
Part 3 involves Bucky’s training regiment, and has the worst and least subtle YouTube description ever:
Bucky Boyd who is 7 ft. tall, 450 lbs. shows the world how he trains for the Rough N Rowdy Brawl! He also reveals a SECRET about himself in the video! Can you BEAR it?
UH OH WHAT COULD THEY BE TALKING ABOUT
Part 4 officially sells out. Bucky thinks he should be on the Wheaties box. He shills Monster energy drinks. He’s clearly in on the joke, conscious of his character, and is totally out of things to say about Tree. Now he’s just like, “I went to the store. TREE, you’d better STORE UP YOUR ENERGY” or whatever. He will morph into the bear man!
And finally, the big rematch.
Listen to Bucky’s “Apollo Creed in Rocky IV” introduction. He’s a popular superstar and everybody loves him! Then, perfectly, watch as Tree turns into Ivan Drago.
That has got to be the worst fighting I’ve ever seen. All that build for THAT? Maybe Bucky should’ve been, I don’t know, learning how to take or throw a punch instead of squishing grapes and cutting down somebody’s trees with a chainsaw. He doesn’t even do anything that could be CONSIDERED offensive. He just holds his hands up like a guy who has never been in a fight, then collapses like King Hippo the first time he gets touched.
Maybe the lesson here is that Tree is a spectacular fighter? I don’t know. This is the end of your 15 minutes, Bucky. You are no longer allowed to have viral videos. Now you’re just Bob Sapp. If you can convince Rough N Rowdy to find some people to take a dive for you, maybe you can be Kimbo Slice.
[h/t to Jessica/Lobster Mobster for the fight video]
