Known as Owen "What the Heck" Beck, Beck began his career in 1998 by winning his first 24 fights, but all against limited opposition, the best being amateur star
Derrell Dixon and undefeated
Taurus Sykes. This streak and a contract with
Don King set up a
WBC &
IBF Heavyweight Title Eliminator bout against heavyweight contender
Monte Barrett in 2005, where Beck lost by technical knockout in the third round. After his first defeat, Beck again lost to
Ray Austin, but beat cruiserweight
Darnell Wilson to set up a shot against the former
WBA Heavyweight Title holder
Nikolay Valuev. Valuev defeated Beck, dropping him twice and winning via TKO in the 3rd. After he fought Valuev he made a comeback and won the fight against Ricardo Arce via 2nd-round technical knockout and had another fight against Marvin Hunt and beat him via first-round knockout. He took a 19-month break from boxing before returning to the ring in June 2009. He fought Andrew Greeley and won the match by split decision on 13 June 2009. He fought Jermell Barnes on 21 August 2009 in a fight which he won by unanimous decision with the scores of 79–73, 77–75 and 80–72 all in favor of Beck. Also in late 2009 Owen enlisted a new trainer Clinton Barnes. On 16 January 2010, Beck fought
Manuel Charr and lost by technical knockout in the tenth and final round with 16 seconds left on the clock. On 16 April, Beck fought
Tony Thompson in
Memphis, Tennessee, and was knocked out at 2-minutes and 50-seconds of the 4th round. ==Professional boxing record==