"Believe in the power of one." Evan Tanner 1971-2008
mookie blaylock 10
Posts: 4,042
he was a good friend when he didn't have to be. i didn't thank him enough for that. i didn't get to say goodbye, but you can never say goodbye to a guy like evan. it was just another trip to say "hey evan, good journeys..."...
you took your last adventure way too soon, evan.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=14429
Sep-8-2008
Evan Tanner 1971-2008
By Thomas Gerbasi
UFC.com
“I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, whether it’s fighting or something, they’ve got to do it. It’s hard to identify with me; it’s just something I do.”
---Evan Tanner, 2005
On what will unquestionably be remembered as one of mixed martial arts’ saddest days, former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner - beloved by fans for his fighting ability and by friends for his free spirit – has passed away at the age of 37.
Tanner, on a camping trip in the Palo Verde mountain area, was found by an Imperial County Sheriff’s Department Deputy on Monday. The cause of death is not known at this time. He had not answered friends’ text messages since last Wednesday, and was officially reported missing on Friday.
On his personal Spike TV web blog, Tanner discussed the trip and how a failure of equipment could be fatal, but in a subsequent blog, he downplayed such fears, writing, “It seems some MMA websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on guys. It's really common down in southern California to go out to the off road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from LA and San Diego. So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn't a version of "Into the Wild". I'm not going out into the desert with a pair of shorts and a bowie knife, to try to live off the land. I'm going fully geared up, and I'm planning on having some fun.”
His agent, John Hayner, says that Tanner was excited about the trip and in a good place physically and mentally before his untimely death.
“He was in a good state of mind the last time we spoke,” said Hayner. “Everyone that was around him, and even at the gym he was training at, also said he was in a great state of mind. Living in Oceanside (California), he really liked being on the beach. His house was across from the water, he was in beautiful surroundings.”
If one thing was ever clear about Tanner, it was that he loved life, the outdoors, and adventure.
“He was always planning on going on some sort of adventure,” said Hayner. “And he never needed the finer things or made a fuss about them. He just needed enough for gas, shelter, and training.”
A native of Amarillo, Texas, Tanner worked various jobs as a bouncer, a cable TV contractor, a framer building beach houses, a dishwasher, a baker, a ditch digger, and a slaughterhouse worker before stumbling on to mixed martial arts in 1997.
Over the next 11 years, fighting would be a major part of his life, to the tune of 42 professional bouts, but as he said earlier this year before what would be his final bout against Kendall Grove, he never considered himself a fighter.
“I always thought of myself as the poet, the writer, or the philosopher – I never thought of myself as a fighter,” he chuckled. “But here I am. I always had an idea of the flow of my life, but not exactly what I would be doing day to day. And fighting definitely wasn’t something I thought I’d be doing.”
But he was good at it – very good in fact. Over the course of his career, Tanner (34-8) scored wins over Paul Buentello, Heath Herring, Ikuhisa Minowa, Justin McCully, Elvis Sinosic, Phil Baroni (twice), and Robbie Lawler. His biggest win, however, came at UFC 51 on February 5, 2005, when he stopped David Terrell in the first round to win the UFC middleweight championship.
Tanner would lose the belt to Rich Franklin in his first defense four months later, but the fans never abandoned him, and he returned that admiration, both in person and through his internet blogs.
“I wanted to give something back to the fans and let them know that I’m just a regular guy,” said Tanner in early 2008. “Some of the guys forget that and get caught up in the lights, and I never want to forget that and that I’m one of the lucky ones that got a chance to get out there and do this. There are a lot of great athletes out there, a lot of great fighters that never got the chance. I’m one of the lucky ones that did, so writing the blog and telling life as it is helps me stay grounded and it gives me a way to connect with the fans and give them something back.”
His blogs were more than just fight talk and product advertisements though. Tanner spoke frankly about life and his struggles in and out of the Octagon. And when
he made his return to the UFC in 2008 after almost two years away, it was a triumph of the human spirit and an inspiration, regardless of whose hand was raised at the end of the fight.
“My thought was that I’m in a position where I’ve done some things and some people look up to me a little bit and maybe something in my story can help inspire them or motivate them to get through some things or do something better,” said Tanner before his return against Yushin Okami at UFC 82 in March. “If that’s the case and it helps anybody else out, then it’s worth me facing the embarrassment.”
He fell short in his final two bouts against Okami and Grove, but there was no keeping him down, and his off-time after the Grove bout was filled with more of his adventures, as well as participation in Harley-Davidson’s 105th anniversary celebration.
Sadly, there will be no more adventures, only memories of Evan Tanner.
“Evan was such a unique individual, and he was okay being an individual,” said Hayner. “He was okay with taking the path less traveled, and he often chose that harder path.”
It was simply who he was. Just read the words he spoke to me before I wished him luck for his fight against Grove in June.
“Everything’s been about the journey,” he said. “I never really set out with goals for fighting; it’s been about the adventure along the way. When you’re on your death bed, it’s those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It’s not so much getting there, but how you got there.”
And he did it his way.
Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed
---Eddie Vedder, “Guaranteed”.
The song playing on Evan Tanner’s myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/evan_tanner
Rest in Peace, Evan.
you took your last adventure way too soon, evan.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=14429
Sep-8-2008
Evan Tanner 1971-2008
By Thomas Gerbasi
UFC.com
“I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, whether it’s fighting or something, they’ve got to do it. It’s hard to identify with me; it’s just something I do.”
---Evan Tanner, 2005
On what will unquestionably be remembered as one of mixed martial arts’ saddest days, former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner - beloved by fans for his fighting ability and by friends for his free spirit – has passed away at the age of 37.
Tanner, on a camping trip in the Palo Verde mountain area, was found by an Imperial County Sheriff’s Department Deputy on Monday. The cause of death is not known at this time. He had not answered friends’ text messages since last Wednesday, and was officially reported missing on Friday.
On his personal Spike TV web blog, Tanner discussed the trip and how a failure of equipment could be fatal, but in a subsequent blog, he downplayed such fears, writing, “It seems some MMA websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on guys. It's really common down in southern California to go out to the off road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from LA and San Diego. So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn't a version of "Into the Wild". I'm not going out into the desert with a pair of shorts and a bowie knife, to try to live off the land. I'm going fully geared up, and I'm planning on having some fun.”
His agent, John Hayner, says that Tanner was excited about the trip and in a good place physically and mentally before his untimely death.
“He was in a good state of mind the last time we spoke,” said Hayner. “Everyone that was around him, and even at the gym he was training at, also said he was in a great state of mind. Living in Oceanside (California), he really liked being on the beach. His house was across from the water, he was in beautiful surroundings.”
If one thing was ever clear about Tanner, it was that he loved life, the outdoors, and adventure.
“He was always planning on going on some sort of adventure,” said Hayner. “And he never needed the finer things or made a fuss about them. He just needed enough for gas, shelter, and training.”
A native of Amarillo, Texas, Tanner worked various jobs as a bouncer, a cable TV contractor, a framer building beach houses, a dishwasher, a baker, a ditch digger, and a slaughterhouse worker before stumbling on to mixed martial arts in 1997.
Over the next 11 years, fighting would be a major part of his life, to the tune of 42 professional bouts, but as he said earlier this year before what would be his final bout against Kendall Grove, he never considered himself a fighter.
“I always thought of myself as the poet, the writer, or the philosopher – I never thought of myself as a fighter,” he chuckled. “But here I am. I always had an idea of the flow of my life, but not exactly what I would be doing day to day. And fighting definitely wasn’t something I thought I’d be doing.”
But he was good at it – very good in fact. Over the course of his career, Tanner (34-8) scored wins over Paul Buentello, Heath Herring, Ikuhisa Minowa, Justin McCully, Elvis Sinosic, Phil Baroni (twice), and Robbie Lawler. His biggest win, however, came at UFC 51 on February 5, 2005, when he stopped David Terrell in the first round to win the UFC middleweight championship.
Tanner would lose the belt to Rich Franklin in his first defense four months later, but the fans never abandoned him, and he returned that admiration, both in person and through his internet blogs.
“I wanted to give something back to the fans and let them know that I’m just a regular guy,” said Tanner in early 2008. “Some of the guys forget that and get caught up in the lights, and I never want to forget that and that I’m one of the lucky ones that got a chance to get out there and do this. There are a lot of great athletes out there, a lot of great fighters that never got the chance. I’m one of the lucky ones that did, so writing the blog and telling life as it is helps me stay grounded and it gives me a way to connect with the fans and give them something back.”
His blogs were more than just fight talk and product advertisements though. Tanner spoke frankly about life and his struggles in and out of the Octagon. And when
he made his return to the UFC in 2008 after almost two years away, it was a triumph of the human spirit and an inspiration, regardless of whose hand was raised at the end of the fight.
“My thought was that I’m in a position where I’ve done some things and some people look up to me a little bit and maybe something in my story can help inspire them or motivate them to get through some things or do something better,” said Tanner before his return against Yushin Okami at UFC 82 in March. “If that’s the case and it helps anybody else out, then it’s worth me facing the embarrassment.”
He fell short in his final two bouts against Okami and Grove, but there was no keeping him down, and his off-time after the Grove bout was filled with more of his adventures, as well as participation in Harley-Davidson’s 105th anniversary celebration.
Sadly, there will be no more adventures, only memories of Evan Tanner.
“Evan was such a unique individual, and he was okay being an individual,” said Hayner. “He was okay with taking the path less traveled, and he often chose that harder path.”
It was simply who he was. Just read the words he spoke to me before I wished him luck for his fight against Grove in June.
“Everything’s been about the journey,” he said. “I never really set out with goals for fighting; it’s been about the adventure along the way. When you’re on your death bed, it’s those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It’s not so much getting there, but how you got there.”
And he did it his way.
Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed
---Eddie Vedder, “Guaranteed”.
The song playing on Evan Tanner’s myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/evan_tanner
Rest in Peace, Evan.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I don't know if it's the right way to celebrate evan, but it's my way of honoring a man free spirit, who was well on his way to becoming an even better man.
I raise a beer in your honor Evan...
Cheers
RIP
09/19/05, 05/09/06, 05/10/06
just watching an old highlight clip of evan's earlier ufc career...
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/evan%2Btanner/video/xmoil_evan-tanner_sport
mookie, honey, i'm so sorry.... :( i know you cared about and respected him a great deal.
this is very sad news. :(
Team Tanner!!
I had just read the news on sherdog. Sorry to hear about such a tragedy.
He was a great inspiration to all!
And he did it his way.
Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed
---Eddie Vedder, “Guaranteed”. The song playing on Evan Tanner’s myspace page.
Rest in Peace, Evan.
Evan Tanner
that was beautiful. it's my greatest hope right now that he found some of what he was looking for in the time he was able to be there.
thanks for the kind words everyone. he is going to be dearly missed by a lot of people.
a tribute video made by a fan today...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vo8DMJXq5s
August 28, 2008
by: Evan_Tanner
Wow!! I can't believe that just happened!
It's 7:46 pm. I just came in from surfing, took off my wetsuit, walked in the door, and I'm sitting here in a towel writing this.
The coolest thing just happened. Those who believe in such things might call it a sign. I don't know, I just know it was awesome to see.
I had been surfing since 4 pm. I sat out on the water as the sun dropped lower and lower. It finally set, and there I was out on the water catching some last waves in the evening light. All the other surfers had gone in. I was the only one still on the water. I decided to catch one more wave and call it a day. I took it as far in to the beach as I could. I stepped off, grabbed my board and turned to look back out. The next wave in the set was just breaking 100 feet away, when suddenly a dolphin flew out of the top of it right where it was cresting, sailed about five or six feet above it and fifteen fifteen feet down, and then dropped back into the smooth face. for a moment or two I could see it's silhouette flying along the wave inside it, just ahead of the breakwater, incredibly smooth and fast. Then it was gone.
I don't have a lot of experience with surfing, or with the ocean. What I just saw might be a common occurrence. I don't know. All I do know is that I was amazed by it.
Tomorrow I'm catching a flight out of San Diego going to Milwaukee. Hope the have some good pictures, and some good stories to post up when I get back.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Evan
http://origin.www.spike.com/blog/wow-i-cant-believe/67838
for evan...he really liked the song.
eddie vedder - guaranteed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3SxCph5I1Q
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b379/segmentedpaintings/ripevantanner1ob0.jpg
"Tanner marched to his own drummer"
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
You had to meet Evan Tanner only once to like him. You had to spend only 10 minutes with him to feel like he was your friend.
He was the kind of guy who loved books, trying new things and meeting new people. The world was too small for the former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder, who was always on the lookout for another adventure.
Sadly, though, it was Tanner’s most recent escapade that led to his untimely death at 37. His body was discovered around noon Monday in a rugged mountainous area near San Diego, where he had gone camping.
Friends, who had known he ventured alone, alerted authorities on Friday when they had not heard from him. Temperatures had reached 114 degrees on Sunday in the area where Tanner’s body was discovered.
Eerily, Tanner seems to have foreshadowed his own death in a blog post he made on Spike TV’s website. Tanner loved to write and became somewhat of a celebrity in the last several years, more for his blogging than for his fighting.
In an Aug. 16 post, Tanner was writing about preparations for his camping trip. He wrote, “I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.”
That is apparently what happened, though authorities in Imperial County have not released a cause of death.
Tanner’s death is as mysterious as the life he lived. The Amarillo, Texas native became a fighter on a whim when he saw a mixed martial arts fight in his hometown and was intrigued. Typically Tanner, he had to try it himself.
It turned out the two-time former Texas state high school wrestling champion was so gifted at this new and fledgling sport that he would go on to become a world champion. A middleweight, he had a 32-8 MMA record and had victories over quality fighters such as Heath Herring, Paul Buentello, Robbie Lawler, David Terrell and Phil Baroni. His career peaked with the first-round TKO win over Terrell at UFC 51 in 2005, which landed him the UFC middleweight crown.
The trappings of fame, though, weren’t what drew Tanner to the sport. He was a man who felt he needed to try everything at least once, to experience all the world had to offer.
He lived humbly, moving from place to place and treating life as a game meant to be played. He had little furniture in his apartment in Las Vegas, where he lived for much of 2008 before moving to Oceanside, Calif.
A minimalist, Tanner often would sleep on the floor amid a stack of his books, which he loved dearly.
He loved nature and being a part of it. In his final blog entry, he railed about overcrowding and marveled at all there is in the universe that man still does not fully understand.
“Today, I ran to the store to pick up a few things, and with the lonesome, quiet desert thoughts on my mind, I couldn’t help but be struck with their brutally stark contrast to my current surroundings, the amazing congestion in which we exist day to day,” he wrote. “The landscape as far as I could see, crowded, choked, with me and the rest of the species, an almost writhing mass of organisms, fighting over space and resources … on the highways, in the parking lots, on the sidewalks, and in the aisle of the stores.
“And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.”
Tanner died doing what he loved, exploring his world in his own way.
We should all be so lucky.
Evan Tanner will be missed, but anyone who knew him well will always have a part of him with them.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=ki-tanner090808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
i've had this very same thought.... every time i go to Alberta and drive through the Rocky Mountains i look at the huge expanse of seemingly inaccessible mountainside, and wonder if anyone has ever walked on it?? ever. in the history of the planet. it's an awe inspiring thought.
i think i would have liked Evan.
RIP Evan Tanner.
i admittedly didn't know who he was until i read this but sad to hear. :(
Wow that gave me chills
So sad :(
Hang in there Mook
The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill
A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
thanks nfanel. he was not the kind of guy who would be well known unless a person was an mma fan or involved in the sport, although some people did just read his blogs. definitely an emotional day for the mma community.
http://www.evantanner.net/
thanks phantom pain. there's a lot of people feeling loss today. evan always did his best to reply to as people who wrote to him as he could. from what i've been reading today there seems to be a lot of people who are thankful to have gotten a reply from him with encouraging words, or just to be inspired by his story. i don't think he realized how many lives he'd touched.
indeed, you would have liked him, ceg!
i noticed this posted in the comments section.... fitting....
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
i'd seen him fight once or twice on tv and was in awe of the power he had. i had no idea until now that the extent of his power extended so far beyond the ring.
RIP Evan
very fitting, ceg.
World loses free spirit in Tanner
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
By "Showdown" Joe Ferraro
SPORTSNET.CA
Every so often you meet people in life who were not what you expected them to be. Your perception of "who they might be" is silenced by "who they actually are."
Evan Tanner was just that. A complex man whose free spirit made it all look so simple.
Unfortunately, Tanner's spirit is all we have left to remember a man who loved life and all of its adventures. Tanner was found dead by an Imperial County Sheriff's Department Deputy on Monday after being reported missing by friends the previous Friday. Tanner's eventual fate was foreshadowed in his own words and beliefs.
Tanner was on a camping trip, alone, in the Palo Verde region in Southern California. When he first posted on his blog on Spike.com that he was going on this self-expedition, he spoke about the various dangers that he would encounter.
"I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life," Tanner wrote.
It was as if Tanner knew it all along yet was unafraid of the fight he was about to face. He was never one to back down from a challenge and was more than ready to face life head on.
It was all about life's journeys and adventures, the day-to-day decision to stay or go and the free will to march to his own drum. He believed that when your time came, when it was time for you to go, you better have some good stories to tell. Tanner had more than his fair share to tell.
"When you're on your death bed, it's those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It's not so much getting there, but how you got there."
And for anyone that has ever met Tanner, believe me, he could spin any conversation into a past experience, a story or a self-awakening epiphany.
Although Tanner was a former UFC Champion, he never considered himself a fighter. He viewed fighting as just one piece of a multi-faceted life. It was simply something he liked to do; nothing less, nothing more.
He never believed it was his calling in life, but it was the spirit within that made him a fighter. Tanner summed it up in the following quote:
"I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, whether it's fighting or something, they've got to do it. It's hard to identify with me; it's just something I do."
Years ago, a friend of mine spent some time with Tanner. An Amarillo, Texas native, he shared some interesting stories about Tanner's free spirit. It was during a time when Tanner considered his life a black hole, a void and one filled with vices. I remember asking Tanner about these dark days and he smiled, told me that it was simply another one of life's experiences that teach you "right from wrong, good from bad and to overcome the pain that life can sometimes dish out."
As time went on, Tanner's spirit continued to take him places most people would describe as strange for a celebrity; places that had him doing things that people in the public light should not be doing. But he never considered himself a celebrity or a star for that matter. He was just a simple guy on a path of exploration and never caught up in the big lights or the status that made him a recognizable face amongst thousands of MMA fans.
While I have always enjoyed Tanner's stories and thoughts on life, the one I enjoyed most was a story he told a few years back about being "lucky" to be where he was and to appreciate it all. He believed that there were so many great fighters out there that never get the chance to shine but he was just at the right place at the right time and ran with it.
It was never about the riches or the fame but rather, it was something he could add to his bucket list of life. His bucket list took him all over the world and it is sad to know he was unable to see so much more.
We will never see Tanner back in the Octagon but he will live through our memories in a variety of lights. The man who taught himself how to fight by watching techniques on video tapes will always shine as the man with the tightly braided hair facing Rich Franklin or perhaps the shaggy-haired veteran who defeated David Terrell to become the UFC champ. Who can forget the clean-cut Tanner at UFC 82 vs. Yushin Okami or the bearded warrior taking on Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale.
At age 37, Tanner has left us far too soon. It was always a treat to read an update on one of his various blogs. His outlook on life was refreshing, especially from the mundane, politically correct typical fighter blabber. Tanner saw it all in a different way and was able to express his thoughts, feelings and emotions with the tone of a philosopher. For a person who was so complex, he was just as simple.
Evan Tanner may be gone, but his free spirit lives on in so many different ways.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2008/09/09/tanner_obit/
hmmm... this sounds an awful lot like something a good friend of mine once told me....
thanks lanners. yeah, there are well over a thousand posts on his page now, and thousands more on mma fan sites. i think he'd be surprised about the reaction.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=7063&zoneid=13
An Amarillo, Texas native, Evan Tanner was a high school wrestling stand out who won the state championships his junior and senior years despite entering the sport as a sophomore. He began mixed martial arts in 1997 encouraged by friends.
Tanner rose to the top of the mixed martial arts world by winning the UFC middleweight title over David Terrell at UFC 51: "Super Saturday" on Feb. 5, 2005. He last competed in the UFC on June 21 losing to Kendall Grove by split decision.
“He will obviously be sorely missed,” said Douglas Vincitorio of Tanner’s management agency, Driving Force Sports. Adding, “I think that Evan would want to be remembered as a very complex man with many layers, not just a fighter.”
“Evan was a dear friend to us and an important part of the DFS family,” says Driving Force Sports owner John Hayner. “He was so much more than a fighter. He was an individual we appreciated and cared a lot about. He marched to a drum only he could hear, and he was happy with that – so were we and so were his fans. He worked so hard to get fans more involved in the industry and be a part of his team. He was the kind of guy who kept on trying every day to improve… not just in fighting but in his life as a whole.”
“Believe in yourself. Believe in your own potential for greatness. Believe that you can change the world. It is something that is within each of us.”
– Evan Michael Tanner 1971-2008
yes. my friend is a very wise man.
wine man? sorry, my eyes are blurry, ceg.
Evan Tanner’s Greatest UFC Moments
By Thomas Gerbasi
Evan Tanner’s tragic death on Monday stunned the mixed martial arts world, and fans have been paying tribute to the former middleweight champion ever since the news of his passing broke. And while Tanner’s life outside of the Octagon made an incredible impact on everyone who knew him, there is no question that his competitive life as a fighter played an equally important role in his story.
So there is no better time to remember seven of Tanner’s greatest UFC moments.
Darrel Gholar – January 8, 1999 – UFC 18
Result – Tanner Wsub1
Facing a two-time Greco-Roman national wrestling champ, Tanner apparently had no business beating Darrel Gholar in his UFC debut, despite a 16-1 record and experience in Japan as well as in the US. And when Gholar got Tanner to the mat and began to work his ground and pound attack, it appeared to be trouble for the 27-year old from Amarillo. But Tanner showed his trademark cool under fire, worked for submissions from the bottom, and eventually got back to his feet, where he attacked Gholar with leg kicks and knees before submitting him at the 7:57 mark. Right then you got the impression Tanner was definitely going to be heard from again.
Homer Moore – November 2, 2001 – UFC 34
Result – Tanner Wsub2
Following the win over Gholar, Tanner would defeat Valeri Ignatov and Lance Gibson, earning him a shot at Tito Ortiz’ title at UFC 30 in February of 2001. The bout was over almost as soon as it started as an Ortiz slam knocked Tanner out in 32 seconds. Less than nine months later, Tanner returned to the Octagon to take on 11-0 prospect Homer Moore, who was getting some significant buzz from the MMA media at the time. Tanner took his time in the first round, getting his legs back in a real fight, and by round two he was ready to attack and he did, easily submitting Moore with an armbar. Tanner was back, and ready to make another run at a title. And he would get there the hard way.
Phil Baroni – November 21, 2003 – UFC 45
Result – Tanner TKO1
After three wins and a loss to UFC newcomer Rich Franklin, Tanner dropped to the 185 pound weight class, and who did he find waiting for him but the ‘New York Bad Ass’ himself, Phil Baroni. And despite Baroni’s two losses to Matt Lindland, many saw him as too fast and powerful for Tanner. But the bout’s four minutes and 42 seconds of compelling action sent a message to the other middleweights that Tanner was a force to be reckoned with, despite a controversial ending.
Using his aforementioned hand speed and power, Baroni stunned Tanner with a right hand seconds into the scheduled three rounder, and follow-up bombs by the New Yorker had Tanner stumbling, cut, and in deep trouble. As it turns out, the cut under Tanner’s left eye may have been his saving grace. With a halt to the action called by referee Larry Landless in order for the ringside doctor to check Tanner’s cut, he gained enough time to recover his senses and get back into the fight.
After he ate another Baroni right hand, Tanner used some effective knees in the clinch and finally took the Long Island native to the mat. As the seconds ticked away on the first round, Tanner gained a full mount position and rained elbows on his foe. Landless leaned in and repeatedly asked Baroni if he wanted the fight stopped. Baroni, thinking that the referee was asking if he was fit to continue, answered ‘yes’. The bout was halted at 4:42 of the first, and though Baroni wasn’t too happy with the finish, Tanner was glad to get the win.
“That guy hits hard,” said Tanner afterwards. “That hurt.”
Robbie Lawler – October 22, 2004 – UFC 50
Result – Tanner Wsub1
After Tanner defeated Baroni via decision in their UFC 48 rematch, another young gun was placed in front of him in hard-hitting Robbie Lawler. Again, Tanner was expected by many to be the sacrificial lamb for the up and comer, but again, he stunned the world with a little veteran magic.
Surprisingly the action was subdued in the first two minutes, with neither man fully committing to the attack. But at the three-minute mark, Lawler made his move, taking Tanner down to the canvas. Unfortunately for the Iowan, Tanner locked in a triangle choke, producing the tap out at 2:22. And with three straight middleweight wins, there would be no denying Tanner of his second world title shot.
David Terrell – February 5, 2005 – UFC 51
Result – Tanner TKO 1 (Wins UFC Middleweight Championship)
David Terrell was the middleweight division’s hot shot after his 24-second KO of Matt Lindland (notice a theme here?) and his crowning as champion seemed to be almost an afterthought. But Tanner would not be denied.
Terrell tried to repeat his early KO of Lindland with a whipping kick to the head seconds after the opening bell, but Tanner blocked the shot. Terrell was able to take Tanner down moments later, and even though the veteran quickly got to his feet, the Santa Rosa, California native was firmly on the offensive as he chased his foe around the Octagon.
Tanner kept his cool though, even after Terrell sunk in a guillotine choke and looked for the submission. “He had me pretty tight, I’m glad I made it through that one,” said Tanner.
Gamely, he pounded his way out of the choke and with Terrell on the mat against the fence, Tanner opened fire with a series of punches and forearms. “I was trying to keep him busy, to keep him from thinking about submissions,” said Tanner.
With no response from Terrell, who appeared bewildered while on the defensive, referee Herb Dean had no choice but to stop the fight with a mere 25 seconds left in the first stanza. And just like that, Evan Tanner was a world champion.
Following a long dry period, the UFC finally has a middleweight champion after veteran Evan Tanner stopped David Terrell in the first round of a scheduled five round title bout.
“It’s awesome,” said the new champion. “I don’t even have the words to describe it.”
Rich Franklin – June 4, 2005 – UFC 53
Result – Franklin TKO4 (doctor’s stoppage)(Tanner loses UFC Middleweight Championship)
Tanner’s reign at the top was short lived, but maybe more than in any victory, his true warrior spirit came out in his loss to Franklin in their rematch.
The fight was fast paced from the start, with Tanner immediately taking the fight to his challenger. Both fighters traded heavy shots with some surprised by Tanner’s willingness to keep the fight standing. Franklin jarred Tanner briefly with a high left kick, and Tanner quickly recovered, only to get rocked by an uppercut seconds later. Franklin’s superior standup skills were evident, but Tanner kept moving forward, looking for an opening – an opening which came with 40 seconds left in the round as he dropped the challenger with a right hand to the jaw. Tanner got Franklin’s back and briefly had an arm for an armbar, but Franklin cleared his head and was back in the fight by the bell.
“I don’t remember that, so apparently I was hurt pretty bad,” said Franklin of the left hand that floored him.
As Tanner went to his corner, he was bleeding from his ear, and things would only get worse as the fight progressed.
Tanner came out confidently in the second, but Franklin easily eluded any danger. The pace dipped a bit
in the second stanza, but Franklin did manage to cut Tanner over the eye, and his fast counters were beating the champion to the punch and leaving their mark on his face.
The pattern continued in the third round, with Franklin now mixing kicks and knees in with his accurate punches. In the second minute, Tanner got nailed and staggered by a left hand but quickly regained his bearings. Another left hurt Tanner a few moments later, and when Franklin got Tanner on the mat, it looked like the end was near, but the courageous Tanner once again fought his way out of danger. Yet when Tanner rose, his face was a mask of blood and bruises.
Despite the fact that the fight was becoming one-sided, Tanner kept coming forward as he refused to give up his title without a fierce struggle, but by the fourth round the outcome was no longer in doubt, and after a series of shots by Franklin with 1:35 to go in the round, referee Herb Dean halted the bout to allow the ringside physicians to check Tanner, and the fight was immediately stopped.
Ironically, the fight took place the same night as the high-profile boxing match between Ricky Hatton and longtime junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu. Tszyu retired in his corner before the 12th round, a move for which he was criticized by some. After the bout, in a column for insidefighting.com, I wrote the following:
“After an 11 round streetfight, Tszyu, face and body battered and bruised, thought of his family, thought of his future, and decided he would not be a trophy for the bloodthirsty.
UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner thought of none of those options. As he faced a young, aggressive, well-conditioned challenger in Rich Franklin, Tanner thought only of defending the title he had worked so hard for and of avenging his loss to this same opponent. He withstood punch after punch as his face swelled and burst open with cuts, and he kept upright, hoping that an opening would show itself where he could turn the fight around and get the victory. And in a sport where there’s no stigma attached to tapping out of a fight, Tanner kept fighting until he wasn’t allowed to fight anymore.”
Less than four months later, I spoke to Tanner before his comeback fight against David Loiseau and asked him what kept him going through that fight as the odds mounted against him.
“I knew that I was taking some damage and it was really unpleasant,” admitted Tanner. “But I was thinking if I can just get him, hit him, get a hold of him, I can make something happen. I just kept believing that I could make something happen, but it didn’t turn out that time.”
That’s what separates champions from everyone else, regardless of whether they still hold a belt or not.
Justin Levens – April 15, 2006 – UFC 59
Result – Tanner Wsub1
Tanner would lose to Loiseau via cuts, his skin betraying him for a second straight night, but six months later he was back in the Octagon against prospect Justin Levens. It was a must-win situation for the former middleweight champion, he knew it, and he acted accordingly, dominating his opponent until the end came via triangle choke at 3:14 of the first round.
“This is my first victory towards the title,” said Tanner after the fight, but little did anyone know that it would be his last win. Tanner would walk away from the sport for nearly two years, and though his heart and determination never wavered, he would fall short in his final two bouts to Yushin Okami and Kendall Grove. But despite the way his career ended, there is no question that the resume he left behind is one to be proud of, and the history books will always remember him as a champion.
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