Evan Tanner has left this world a little less interesting.
September 9, 2008
Posted in The Rogan Blog
The world has lost one of it’s most interesting characters.
The news spread all over the Internet yesterday that former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner is dead.
Evan had apparently gone out deep into the California desert looking for adventure and perished when he ran out of gas and water.
For any normal person the thought of traveling alone into the middle of the savage environment of Death Valley seems insane, but when I heard that’s what Evan Tanner was planning it made perfect sense.
Evan was a lot more than a “normal” person. He was a fascinating individual – a wandering spirit in search of adventure in the truest sense of the term.
I was a regular reader of Evan’s blog, and although I had always appreciated him as a fighter and a friendly person to talk to, it was in reading his writings that I came to better understand his spirit.
He would write with painful honesty and admirable vision about every aspect of his journey through this life, and when I would read his words I would always get food for thought.
Sometimes when I write, it’s like I’m reaching out to an old friend without a name or a face. I think of it as some new form of non-physical intimacy.
I’m trying to find my consciousness and merge it with yours, and as weird as it sounds I feel that connection with every myspace message and email I get.
We’re both alone and interfaced with a monitor in silence, and as I craft my sentences and express my ideas my intention is always for you to get an unfiltered view into my thoughts. I want you to take them with you.
I’m opening my head to merge my thoughts with you, and the only way that really works is if I’m 100% honest.
Reading Evan Tanner’s blog has on many occasions inspired me into that conclusion.
His blog was a porthole into the window of his soul, and reading his brave, uncensored thoughts gave me an invigorated sense of purpose to do the same.
Evan’s take on life was like that of a character in an adventure novel, and his thirst for experience was actually what lead him into fighting in the first place.
I can remember the first time I watched him fight, when I read that he learned his techniques from a video tape and was self trained. I thought that it takes a really unusual person to enter into the toughest sport in the world that way. He took that unusual energy and channeled it to become the UFC middleweight champion of the world.
He was that, and more.
Evan Tanner has left the rest of us trapped in this life and has moved on to the next stage of existence where he will undoubtedly find adventure beyond his wildest imagination.
In doing so he has left the world a little less interesting.
MMA COMMUNITY REMEMBERS EVAN TANNER
Thursday, September 11, 2008
In Memory of Evan Tanner
Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner was found dead on Monday, Sept. 10 in the mountain area outside of Palo Verde, Calif. He was 37 years old.
Tanner was a veteran of more than a decade in mixed martial arts. Though he hardly settled in one place over the course of his career, Tanner’s friendly nature and nomadic spirit led him to cross paths with many people in the MMA community.
In the spirit of remembering Evan Tanner, following are some of the comments from people who new him… in their own words:
Joe Rogan, UFC commentator:
Evan was a lot more than a “normal” person. He was a fascinating individual – a wandering spirit in search of adventure in the truest sense of the term. I was a regular reader of Evan's blog, and although I had always appreciated him as a fighter and a friendly person to talk to, it was in reading his writings that I came to better understand his spirit.
His blog was a porthole into the window of his soul, and reading his brave, uncensored thoughts gave me an invigorated sense of purpose to do the same.
Evan’s take on life was like that of a character in an adventure novel, and his thirst for experience was actually what led him into fighting in the first place.
I can remember the first time I watched him fight, when I read that he learned his techniques from a video tape and was self trained. I thought that it takes a really unusual person to enter into the toughest sport in the world that way. He took that unusual energy and channeled it to become the UFC middleweight champion of the world.
He was that, and more.
Evan Tanner has left the rest of us trapped in this life and has moved on to the next stage of existence where he will undoubtedly find adventure beyond his wildest imagination. In doing so he has left the world a little less interesting…
Matt Lindland and Team Quest:
We at Team Quest are saddened to hear the news of Evan Tanner. He was and always will be a part of the Team Quest Family. As much as we tried to make Evan feel a part of the pack, he was a lone wolf and tried hard not to fit the mold. He liked to do it his way. – God Bless
Monte Cox, fighter manager and president of Adrenaline MMA:
I'm really saddened by the news... Evan first fought for me in 1998 and was one of the guys I always enjoyed seeing at the shows, whether he was competing or not. He always had a big smile and a handshake waiting whenever we bumped into each other. The MMA community and everybody who was touched by him will miss him greatly."
Randy Couture, UFC heavyweight champion:
We're all going to sorely miss Evan Tanner. He was a tremendous talent in our sport, and in many ways, self-taught in all the skills that he possessed in mixed martial arts. In a lot of ways his passing is metaphorical for his life, because he was one of those people that isolated himself.
I wasn't really familiar with where he had gone. He was in Oregon; he was gone. He was here; he was gone. Nobody could really keep up with him, he just kind of moved at his own pace and in his own time. He never really checked in with anybody, 'hey, I'm moving here' and let you know he was going, he just kind of disappeared. So I had no idea how to get a hold of him or where he was.
He was in Oregon with us for a couple years, through his championship run. He stayed at my house for a while when he first moved from Texas, and he lived in the back of the gym at Team Quest for quite a long time too before Donita moved up and they got there own place up there. Trained with him almost every day when he was getting ready for fights. Then he moved out of Team Quest in Oregon, and went his own way.
Tito Ortiz, former UFC light heavyweight champion:
All my blessing to his family for sure. It's a shock to me still. I remember Evan being a really good guy, and a solid fighter, and it’s kind of heart shaking. I was really taken back from it when it happened, when I heard about it online. I can always be thankful that I had the chance to fight him and just to compete with the guy and be around the guy for competition. He's always been a solid guy."
Kendall Grove, last fighter to face Evan:
I didn't know Evan personally, but personally enough that I fought him. I know that he was a really, really good guy and the sport has lost a good person and a pioneer to the sport. We fought and shared that bond. My heart is out to his family. I'm praying for his family and him. I'm going to miss the guy.
Jason Leigh, a personal friend of Evan’s:
Evan at times could be very stubborn. If you asked him about something he'd answer with firsthand knowledge because if he didn't experience something, he'd tell you he didn't have an opinion on it.
He'd tell you things that you didn't want to hear, but at the same time you knew that if it was coming from Evan, he wasn't just blowing smoke and telling you something that you just wanted to hear. Everything about him was genuine.
He didn't care if people liked him or hated him. He just wanted them to know that what he said is really what he thought.
He had a genuine love for mankind. I think his ultimate goal was to use his UFC exposure to do his charity work for people that needed help.
He was a lot more than just a fighter. He really cared.
Sorry to hear that, Tim. :(
Seems like he was a good man and a very good friend to you.
Sorry for the loss. Stay strong.
thanks cropdustress. thanks to everyone for having a look at the thread and your kind thoughts.
here are a couple more videos i thought i'd post. i don't expect anyone to watch all of these or read all of these articles, but just thought i'd post them in case anyone was interested.
this is a two part interview that i believe was done during the training leading up to the fight against kendall grove. evan talks about his philosophies on life and what he has learned in his life, making change in the world, kindness, his fascination with the world and reasons for adventuring, and trying to find purpose in the paths we follow...
the interview is called "for a better world".
"we've kind of run away with ourselves, run away from ourselves here in this society. we've lost touch. very few people get it... took me a while."
"i learned the things that truly matter. now i can live by it. one of the ultimate things a human can learn is kindness for their fellow humans, and understanding. i'd like to teach those things to my children."
Tanner lived life to its fullest
by John McCarthy, FOXSports.com
September 11, 2008
I write this with a sad and heavy heart because as you have probably already heard, Evan Tanner died in the southern California desert earlier this week.
If there is one thing I have had too much of in my life, it is death — of many people who have come into my life in capacities both large and small. While Evan and I really only knew each other from the world of fighting, he was one of those individuals that you liked because of his easygoing nature and the simplicity with which he went through life.
He was also one of the most complex men I knew with some of the demons he struggled through life with. Nobody is perfect and Evan was right there with the rest of us, but he lived his life the way he wanted.
Many people figure that since he was a fighter and was seen on TV, he must have been doing pretty well financially. They figure that he would have a home, a nice car and some money in the bank.
That was not the life that Evan Tanner led. The fact that Evan died alone in the middle of nowhere should not be dismissed as mere coincidence. It is the final chapter of a story that seemed to carry on throughout the life of a man known as a nomadic spirit who was happy being himself no matter what anyone else thought.
When trying to characterize or categorize Evan Tanner you would be hard-pressed to come up with one word to describe such a deeply complex individual. Most people know of Evan because he was a fighter, but when you got to know Evan, you knew a man who was much more than a fighter.
Fighting was something he did. Why? Because it was part of the adventure, something that made life interesting, something that made him feel alive. That is why he was in the middle of the desert out on his own discovering God-knows-what but doing it on his own terms in a manner that made sense to him and made him feel that he was living his life in a way that meant the most to him. It was like an adventure because he was one of the ultimate adventurers, a philosophical renaissance man who lived many lives.
I first met Evan before his first fight in the UFC back at UFC 18. He was matched against Darryl Gholar, a tremendous wrestler who was a three-time national champion in Greco Roman and had been an alternate on the 1988 Olympic team.
Evan was coming into the UFC with some great credentials as a fighter. He had been fighting in the United States Shootfighting Association in Texas and had recently won the Pancrase Neo-Blood Tourney. He was a solid wrestler who threw big knees and elbows and it was said that he learned his submission game from video tapes.
The fight was a good fight with Darryl getting the best of Evan early but not being able to really hurt Evan or crack his defenses. Evan pushed the pace and eventually broke Darryl with a series of knees and elbows that allowed Evan to get a rear naked choke that ended the fight in the first round. It was a great start in the UFC for a young fighter with an unlimited amount of potential.
Through the years, I was inside the cage to witness Evan in good times and bad. Evan's first attempt at a world title came at UFC 30 in New Jersey against the Huntington Beach Bad Boy Tito Ortiz. On that night, I remember Evan coming into the cage with his "Believe in the Power of One" line that he really lived by. The music that was playing was screaming out "Right Here, Right Now" but that was all the theatrics that accompanied Evan Tanner into the cage that night. In contrast, Tito had a fireworks show that was unbelievable and entered to a song written for him claiming "Tito's in the house."
After starting the fight, there was a short feeling-out period when Evan and Tito clinched. I had no idea that it was the beginning of the end for Evan that night. With double underhooks secured, Tito lifted Evan up in a body lock and slammed him to the ground causing Evan to bounce his head off the floor of the Octagon, knocking him unconscious. If you look at the Octagon that is used today, it was constructed and engineered to help absorb the shock of slams because of Evan's fight with Tito back at UFC 30.
Evan obviously went on to bigger and better things in the sport of MMA. In his second shot at a world title he won the UFC middleweight championship when he defeated David Terrell in a fight where the oddsmakers had Evan as a 3-to-1 underdog. He proved every one of them wrong, surviving a deep guillotine attempt at the beginning of the fight and then doing what Evan did best, launching an endless blitz of punches and elbows that drew a referee stoppage for a TKO victory in the first round.
When you stop and think about it, this man was the top fighter in the UFC's middleweight division and he really never fully practiced his trade. Now don't get me wrong, Evan trained and when he trained, he trained hard. But Evan trained only when he had a fight coming up. As he explained it to me, there were just too many things to do in life, too many sights to see, too much life to experience to spend it all training in a gym somewhere.
I am going to miss Evan Tanner. I will miss the shy and quiet, good-hearted, give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back-even-though-it's-the-only-shirt-he-has man that was Evan Tanner.
Evan, everybody dies, but how many of us have really lived? I believe that you really did and hopefully you have found the peace you have been searching for.
i haven't had time to look at the videos yet cause i'm still at work.
I did just read joe rogan's write up and thought it was great.
Well it's back to work for me, just wanted to check in on the thread and make sure you're still ok mookie
yeah, i thought joe did a good job on that one. a lot of things are being written by people i didn't expect, i think. everything's been overwhelmingly positive, so it helps. thanks, leafs.
there is a video to watch on this one at mmajunkie. bas rutten shares a few memories about evan in the video.
"Inside MMA" preview: Bas Rutten shares a favorite Evan Tanner story
by MMAjunkie.com Staff
Sep 12, 2008
On tonight's edition of "Inside MMA" on HDNet, hosts Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten discuss the recent death and some of their favorite memories of UFC veteran Evan Tanner.
As part of our partnership with the weekly MMA news show, we now have an exclusive preview of that "Inside MMA" segment and tonight's show, which airs at a special time of 8 p.m. ET.
"Good fighter (and) I don't think there's anybody that didn't like him," Rutten said of Tanner. "I mean, there's not a bad bone in his body. It's very unfortunate, and when I heard the news, it really got me."
Rutten also shared one of his favorite stories about traveling to Japan with Tanner and a (very) late night of drinking and hanging out. Check out the embedded clip for the full story.
"There was an enigma about the man -- a puzzle even to those who knew him well," Rice said. "Evan liked to go out on his own, and that is the way that he passed."
For more on Tanner, check out tonight's full episode. Panelists on tonight's episode include EliteXC heavyweight Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin and Tapout Magazine publisher Bob Pittman.
Tonight's episode also features an exclusive interview with Tom Atencio in which the Affliction Vice President discusses the postponement of the "Day of Reckoning" card.
ufc.com has posted a tribute video for evan on their home page, but i can't get it to play...anyway, good of them to put something up on the main site.
i remember this bulletin that evan posted on myspace. this is from a post made on sherdog in a remembering evan tanner thread...
"I knew Evan for a little over 3 years. We started out as Myspace buddies, as I'm sure many people did. During his darkest times, he and I would write back and forth, and over the course of many months, actually established a friendship.
In mid 2006, a very close friend of mine was diagnosed with leukemia, and was in need of a blood/marrow donor. Her blood type was very rare, and blood and tissue matches for a Filipino girl with her blood type were not easily found. I was releasing bulletins almost hourly on Myspace, calling in favors to friends at hospitals, etc. in hopes of helping her. Evan saw one of my bulletins and asked if he could help. Over the course of the next several weeks, he blogged for my friend, and several possible donors answered the call. She ended up later having a relative who was a match, but the point here is that Evan managed to find 8 people, that actually went through testing to become a donor for this girl. It wasn't even a second thought for him to help.
Evan and I remained fairly close, through e-mail and phone. Early last year, when I was diagnosed with a serious illness of my own, he was very supportive, and sometimes made more of a difference in my down days then he could have realized. When he finally came back to the UFC, Evan, notoriously publicity shy, allowed my tiny little show to have his very first interview back. He stayed on with us for about 40 minutes, and although a bit shy at first, he opened up and had alot of fun with us. We were very starstruck at the time, especially since he decided to allow us his first interview back.
My story isn't as poignant as some, but it is a way for me to share with people what a great guy Evan was. Selfless. He gave away, far more than he kept. GB (a close friend of Tanner's) and I spoke today, and he talked me into putting this out there for you guys. Evan touched so many lives, and I am so grateful to have known him, on any level.
The girl we set out to help, Ivy V., added this on my blog:
I found out the news this morning. Shock and disbelief don't even begin to convey how I reacted. But my first thoughts were of course his family and you. I don't know if you remember, but through you, Evan was able to help me find so many donors. While I didn't receive those in particular, 2 of those donors are actually still on my list in the registry after 2 years. It's rare to find those people who are my type, but even rarer (is that a word?) to have them kept on a certain person's list.
Evan sent me such kind words along with other people that lifted me out of my depression. I have no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be here today without his and your help.
All my love to you and Evan's family - if you touch base with his camp, please, please, please send me deepest condolences and utter thanks. Throughout the year and a half of my remission Evan would drop a line once in awhile, which would keep me going. He even told me that when I get 100% better, he would totally support my dream of being a fighter myself and got a chuckle out of my "Cold As Ice...Cream" name that I wanted. I told him also that I was going to wear pink shorts in the ring and he was like, "To match Pepto Bismal?"
ok, i got the tribute video to work on ufc.com. it's a short one, but has some nice pictures in it that evan took. the last one is one of my faves...evan took a lot of those pictures, just staring out into the vastness of the world and experiencing it.
this most recent episode of "mma live" from espn.com starts out with a moving video montage as well as a few words regarding evan from journalist franklin mcneil and kenny florian as well...
wow! this is an astounding piece of work. whoever put this one together did an amazing job. it's mostly fight footage spanning evan's entire career, mostly his wins. too bad there isn't footage from the losses as well, but i won't complain. from his first tournament wins against paul buentello and heath herring, to winning the neo blood pancrase tourney in japan, to the start of the ufc and back & forth to texas, up until the UFC MW championship win, and his final win over justin levens by triangle choke.
just watched the inside mma episode where bas talked about evan. Thought it was pretty funny, "i woke up and he had another beer in his hand, i said, ok you win" lol
"I'll ride the wave where it takes me"
09/19/05, 05/09/06, 05/10/06
just watched the inside mma episode where bas talked about evan. Thought it was pretty funny, "i woke up and he had another beer in his hand, i said, ok you win" lol
i must watch that one, leafs! i have heard that he and bas had some wild stories. i'm looking forward to hearing bas tell one.
here is a great, in-depth article about evan, mostly about his time with team quest in oregon, his ex, and his alcohol problems...it still sounds funny to read so many people say that they didn't "get him" or that he was a strange character. not surprising, but funny.
"Tanner’s rich life led to his ultimate bout"
On Sports
By Kerry Eggers
The Portland Tribune, Sep 18, 2008
When he died in the searing Southern California desert heat Sept. 8, Evan Tanner left a few questions unanswered.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder – who lived in Portland from 2001-05 while competing for Team Quest Fight Club – was a paradox.
He made his living trying to beat the bejesus out of anyone courageous enough to step into a ring with him.
But Tanner had another side. He loved movies and literature. Under “favorites” on his Myspace page, he listed dozens of films and even more books, including “Siddhartha,” “Dr. Zhivago,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Out of Africa,” along with the works of Walt Whitman, Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.
“Evan was a dynamic Renaissance man,” says John Hayner, who served as Tanner’s manager at the time of his death at age 37. “He hated to be labeled. He often would say, ‘I’m not a fighter. I’m an artist, a writer, a poet.’ He was anything but just a fighter, but he was mostly an adventurer.”
Tanner’s final adventure came in the mountain area near Palo Verde, Calif., with temperatures hitting 114 degrees.
Was it suicide? Those who knew him best say they don’t believe it was.
“I don’t think he had a death wish,” says Randy Couture, the Team Quest co-founder who became the UFC’s only five-time champion. “But he was a little out there, and he liked to push the envelope.”
•••
Tanner grew up in Amarillo, Tex., a high school state champion wrestler with wanderlust in his heart. He was supposed to wrestle at Oklahoma State but got mononucleosis and dropped out of school. He wound up moving coast to coast, working odd jobs — laying TV cable for a while — to make ends meet.
He landed back in Amarillo for a while, was introduced to ultimate fighting and then, at age 26, to Danita Drown, six years younger.
“Evan was very extreme,” says Drown, now Danita Rigert, 31, married with an 18-month-old son and living in Gresham. “He did everything crazy and free and wild. It was different from my lifestyle, but at the same time, we had a lot in common.”
After dating for three months, Tanner moved in with Rigert. They lived in Amarillo for a year before Tanner moved to Portland to train at Team Quest with such notables as Couture and Matt Lindland. Rigert soon followed, and they lived together in Portland for four years.
Before Rigert hit town, Tanner camped out at Couture’s house for a few weeks.
“I probably knew Evan as well as anybody got to know him,” says Couture, now a Las Vegas resident who is coming out of retirement to fight Brock Lesnar in UFC 91 in November. “He was a unique individual who stayed to himself and never opened up or connected with a lot of people. It’s almost metaphorical that he passed the way he passed — in the desert, by himself.”
Tanner and Lindland had met a year earlier at UFC 29 in Japan, Lindland’s debut fight. Lindland shared a locker with Tanner’s opponent and, after sizing the two up, thought, “this guy (Tanner) is going to get killed. Then Evan went out and destroyed the guy.”
They kept in touch and grew closer when Tanner moved to Portland.
“Even was very pleasant, but he was definitely an odd individual,” says Lindland, a 2000 Olympic silver medalist wrestler who fought for the UFC middleweight title. “The thing that struck me the most about him was this: He came out here to be a part of the team and learn from us and be coached by us, but when it came to anything outside of the training room, the guy refused anybody’s help. It was always, ‘I got this handled.’
“He had our support, but he was kind of the black sheep. He wanted to be this lone wolf, this outsider.”
“Evan was a hard case,” says former Team Quest training partner Ryan Schultz. “He was going to do things his way. But I loved the guy.”
For a while, Tanner lived in a trailer behind the Team Quest camp.
“One morning, Evan came in and couldn’t open his eyes,” Couture recalls. “They were like fire red. He said, ‘I had no access to water and couldn’t take my contacts out, so I left them in for a few days.’
“Finally, he had to peel the contacts off ... and peeled a bunch of cells off his cornea in the process. It was like gravel in the eyes. We got him some eyedrops, and he was fine in a couple of days.”
Stories. There are many stories about Tanner’s thirst for adventure.
“Once, he bought a sailboat but didn’t know how to sail,” Lindland says with a chuckle. “Fortunately, he wrecked it in the harbor before he got it out to sea.”
Rigert’s father owned a Harley-Davidson shop in Amarillo.
“I had a motorcycle, and Evan decided to ride it to Texas to trade it in for a new one,” she says.
In the dead of winter.
“He drove through snow and ice,” Rigert says. “It was freezing cold, but he made it.”
Tanner told Rigert of the time when, on a trek through the Grand Canyon, he saw a sign that warned, “Do not attempt to hike down this trail and back in one day.”
“So he did it, with only one bottle of water, and almost died of dehydration,” she says. “He doesn’t know how he made it.”
•••
Schultz met Tanner when Schultz joined Team Quest in 2003.
“Evan was one of the best fighters of all-time,” says Schultz, a former International Fight League lightweight champion who recently signed a five-event deal to fight in Japan. “He was one of the hardest-working guys in the sport. He was a great training partner and a warrior through and through.
“He was also an intellectual — at times, almost too smart for his own good. He overthought a lot of stuff. Evan was a very deep person. He was spiritual in the sense of trying to figure out why we’re here on earth.”
Couture saw the intellectual side of Tanner, too.
“Evan was very bright,” Couture says. “Everything he learned in (mixed martial arts) before he came to us, he learned out of a book.
“He was a member of this crazy ‘Classic Book Club.’ He was getting all these leatherbound gold-rimmed books like ‘Moby Dick.’ He sat around and read them. A very interesting guy, a nice guy to be around. But he had his demons.”
Those demons came primarily from drinking.
“The monkey he couldn’t get off his back,” Schultz says, “was alcohol.”
•••
”Evan was an alcoholic,” Rigert says. “We had a lot of differences because of that problem. And I wanted a family. He wasn’t quite ready for that.”
Rigert left Tanner in 2005 and returned to Amarillo.
“It was hard for both of us,” Rigert says. “We were best friends. But it was better that way.”
Tanner’s comrades at Team Quest were trying to help him.
“At our gym, the guys are one big family,” says Lindland, an Eagle Creek resident who is the Republican candidate for state representative from District 52 in this November’s election. “When you train and bleed and sweat together, you develop a certain bond. You can say certain things to guys. You can be brutally honest. There were a lot of us who said to Evan, ‘Hey, you got a problem, bro. Do something about it.’ "
Lindland says he first knew the problem was serious when he got a call from Rigert, wondering where Tanner was.
“Turns out he was hanging out at the beach on the Sandy River and wouldn’t come home,” Lindland says. “The next day, after he sobered up, I was like, ‘We might have a problem here.’ "
Schultz didn’t like what he was seeing in his friend.
“Once, I went to his house after he’d been drinking quite a few days straight,” Schultz says. “We had a physical altercation, me trying to get him to snap out of it.
“At times, he would snap out of it. Imagine how good he’d have been (as a fighter) if he’d been sober. He would destroy his body with alcohol, and then he’d train back and be a physical specimen again. He’d clean up and put in four or five workouts a day to catch up when he was doing the wrong things.
“I looked up to Evan for a long time after I got here,” Schultz says somberly, “but you realized after awhile that alcohol was a demon for him.”
“It always amazed me,” Lindland observes, “that Evan could put down the drinking long enough to get in peak shape to perform. Then he’d go out and celebrate, and beat himself up because he was mad at himself for getting drunk. It was a vicious cycle. He was able to do those things and still be a champion.”
Tanner won the middleweight title at UFC 51, then lost it in UFC 53, both in early 2005. By October, Rigert was gone, and Schultz had ended their friendship.
“I couldn’t watch Evan do what he was doing to himself with alcohol,” Schultz says. “I said, ‘Look, I’m not going to be your drinking buddy.’ We went our own ways.”
Everything quickly came to a head.
“Typically, guys don’t quit drinking on their own,” Lindland says. “Well, Evan did everything on his own. I thought for a while he was going to handle it on his own. But after four years of dealing with it, it was like, ‘Stop drinking and get things together.’
“We gave him an ultimatum — get help or you’re going to leave. Our attitude was, ‘We’ve had enough; your drinking is affecting everybody else.’ That’s when he decided to leave.”
•••
Tanner went south, living first in Las Vegas, then in Oceanside, Calif., though he still had a house in Troutdale. He fought only occasionally — once in 2006 and twice in 2008.
“He lost them both,” Lindland says of the recent bouts. “Lost to guys I thought he would just crush. He didn’t look so hot.”
By that time, the passion may have been gone.
“The way Evan funded his adventures was fighting,” says Hayner, a San Clemente, Calif., resident who worked with Tanner the past two years. “He did that, really, for 10 years. He would plan adventures for months and months, fight, then take four or five months off to go do adventures, so that he would have stories to tell his children.”
Hayner says Tanner had been renting an apartment on the beach in Oceanside and had gotten his personal life together.
“His alcohol problem was a thing of the past,” Hayner says. “He hadn’t been drinking in well over a year. He didn’t go through any specific treatment. His treatment was being in nature, going on hikes, things like that. Living across the street from the ocean, that was his treatment.”
Tanner amused himself, and kept in touch with fans, through a blog he did with SpikeTV. He made several trips to the desert, where he could be at one with himself and nature and experience a spiritual “cleansing.”
After learning of a friend’s recent treasure-hunting expedition in the the mountain area near Palo Verde, he wrote in late August about becoming motivated by “my insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration. I began to imagine what might be found in the deep reaches of this untracked desert. It became an obsessions of sorts. ‘Treasure’ doesn’t necessarily refer to something material. ... I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.”
In preparing for the trip, he added, “being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.”
A couple of weeks later, Tanner’s body was found. He had text-messaged a friend that his motorcyle had run out of gas, and that he was walking back to his camp a couple of miles away to get gas and water. He never made it.
•••
Suicide?
“It’s hard to say with Evan,” Schultz says. “I don’t think it was. I’m told he was waiting for the right (expedition) gear, to do it correctly. I don’t think he went out with the intentions to not come back.”
But what about the ominous post on his blog about potential death?
“A lot of people question that statement,” Rigert says. “He knew the risks of going into a desert at 100-plus degrees. It was a challenge. But that’s how he always lived. If people say you’re crazy for doing something, it made him want to do it even more.
“I don’t think he had any intentions of dying in the desert. I knew him well enough to say, that was not his plan.”
Hayner is even more certain.
“In no way, shape or form” was it suicide, he says. “I was at his house on Monday when UPS showed up with a new helmet he ordered online. He absolutely planned on coming home. He died looking for water, looking for the spring. The spring was right there, but ...”
Rigert was shocked — but not altogether surprised — when she learned of her ex’s demise.
“I was kind of mad,” she says. She pauses, then continues, her voice choking with emotion.
“It’s hard. Someone you spent a lot of your life with is very special to you. You always cherish that. I know how stubborn he was. I just wish help could have gotten to him somehow.
“I’ll always love him,” says Rigert, who moved from Amarillo to Gresham last December. “He was a great guy. I can’t say anything bad about him, and I’m thankful for that.”
Tanner’s life will be remembered during a ceremony at Sportfight 24 in the Rose Garden on Sept. 19. Lindland and Schultz will be there. The questions about Tanner’s ultimate fate will be, too.
i remember evan posting a couple of pictures on his myspace from this, but he never really went into a whole lot of detail about them. i just found this article a bit ago. it's from last year...he never ceased to surprise.
it seems like every day someone is revealing a new story. it helps to read them all, knowing that others are reading about him and his selfless nature. maybe some people will be inspired.
Evan Tanner Helps Build A Playground
by Nick Thomas
Nov 16, 2007
A Fighter with a big heart comes to Fort Worth to build a new playground for a low income school:
A Parent Teacher Association had been working hard to raise the funds needed to build a safe playground for the 870+ children attending this low-income school. A $5,000 grant that the school received for the playground had a stipulation. After raising the remaining funds needed for the playground equipment the school would have to build it themselves. They needed 150 volunteers to do the build successfully. A parent started contacting as many athletes as she could think of. She knew that strength and stamina was what the school was going to need to get the playground built in one day. There were few responses. Professional fighter, Evan Tanner of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) heard about the need for tough guys with big hearts and offered to fly in from Las Vegas to help.
"Your Cause is a good one." "I will be there," Evan Tanner simply stated.
The playground build was on Saturday, November 3rd. Starting at 8am and ending at 5pm when the playground was completed. Evan Tanner showed up bright and early with a smile on his face and ready to work.
Tanner spent the first part of the day building a rock climb side by side with a parent and some teachers. After that job was done he moved outside to the site and just jumped in and moved from one task to another. Seeing each task completed before he moved on to the next. Not once did he stand still unless it where for a picture with a fan.
"Tanner managed to nearly have a hand in putting together every part of this playground today." "He is amazing." "I have never seen anything like it," said a local volunteer.
After the equipment was up, concrete in, and everything leveled it was lunch time. Tanner had a few minutes to get some food in before he spent his lunch time signing autographs for the 50 or more kids attending. He brought trading cards and gave each child an autographed picture writing something inspirational on each one.
"The ones to my daughters say, Live strong and dream big and Live well, Laugh often, and Love much," revealed a fan.
He also signed a t-shirt here or there upon request. The children seemed to be in awe. He then met with some local heroes out in the parking lot. The local fire department showed up to support the build day. The bunch of heroes took part in getting some autographs as well. Once lunch was over he was back at work moving the mountain of mulch.
"That man is a machine, a human shovel," said a volunteer from a local church.
"I guarantee that Tanner moved a third of that mountain himself!" said a parent and volunteer.
"He brought the same intensity to the playground build that he brings to the octagon," stated a fan.
"He has the most heart of anyone I have ever met, a true inspiration." "Not too many people get to meet someone as humble and giving as Mr. Evan Tanner." "He flew here to work for strangers, for free." "He made this day for the kids even more special than I had hoped for." "It is nice to know that some athletes remember that they can make a difference outside of their sport." "I am Lucky to have met him," declared volunteer and Playground Leader.
Comments
Evan Tanner has left this world a little less interesting.
September 9, 2008
Posted in The Rogan Blog
The world has lost one of it’s most interesting characters.
The news spread all over the Internet yesterday that former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner is dead.
Evan had apparently gone out deep into the California desert looking for adventure and perished when he ran out of gas and water.
For any normal person the thought of traveling alone into the middle of the savage environment of Death Valley seems insane, but when I heard that’s what Evan Tanner was planning it made perfect sense.
Evan was a lot more than a “normal” person. He was a fascinating individual – a wandering spirit in search of adventure in the truest sense of the term.
I was a regular reader of Evan’s blog, and although I had always appreciated him as a fighter and a friendly person to talk to, it was in reading his writings that I came to better understand his spirit.
He would write with painful honesty and admirable vision about every aspect of his journey through this life, and when I would read his words I would always get food for thought.
Sometimes when I write, it’s like I’m reaching out to an old friend without a name or a face. I think of it as some new form of non-physical intimacy.
I’m trying to find my consciousness and merge it with yours, and as weird as it sounds I feel that connection with every myspace message and email I get.
We’re both alone and interfaced with a monitor in silence, and as I craft my sentences and express my ideas my intention is always for you to get an unfiltered view into my thoughts. I want you to take them with you.
I’m opening my head to merge my thoughts with you, and the only way that really works is if I’m 100% honest.
Reading Evan Tanner’s blog has on many occasions inspired me into that conclusion.
His blog was a porthole into the window of his soul, and reading his brave, uncensored thoughts gave me an invigorated sense of purpose to do the same.
Evan’s take on life was like that of a character in an adventure novel, and his thirst for experience was actually what lead him into fighting in the first place.
I can remember the first time I watched him fight, when I read that he learned his techniques from a video tape and was self trained. I thought that it takes a really unusual person to enter into the toughest sport in the world that way. He took that unusual energy and channeled it to become the UFC middleweight champion of the world.
He was that, and more.
Evan Tanner has left the rest of us trapped in this life and has moved on to the next stage of existence where he will undoubtedly find adventure beyond his wildest imagination.
In doing so he has left the world a little less interesting.
http://blog.joerogan.net/archives/236
pictures...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFxZoPihZHQ
some video and pictures...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBgap6c5H0A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqxIxXC5kew
Thursday, September 11, 2008
In Memory of Evan Tanner
Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner was found dead on Monday, Sept. 10 in the mountain area outside of Palo Verde, Calif. He was 37 years old.
Tanner was a veteran of more than a decade in mixed martial arts. Though he hardly settled in one place over the course of his career, Tanner’s friendly nature and nomadic spirit led him to cross paths with many people in the MMA community.
In the spirit of remembering Evan Tanner, following are some of the comments from people who new him… in their own words:
Joe Rogan, UFC commentator:
Evan was a lot more than a “normal” person. He was a fascinating individual – a wandering spirit in search of adventure in the truest sense of the term. I was a regular reader of Evan's blog, and although I had always appreciated him as a fighter and a friendly person to talk to, it was in reading his writings that I came to better understand his spirit.
His blog was a porthole into the window of his soul, and reading his brave, uncensored thoughts gave me an invigorated sense of purpose to do the same.
Evan’s take on life was like that of a character in an adventure novel, and his thirst for experience was actually what led him into fighting in the first place.
I can remember the first time I watched him fight, when I read that he learned his techniques from a video tape and was self trained. I thought that it takes a really unusual person to enter into the toughest sport in the world that way. He took that unusual energy and channeled it to become the UFC middleweight champion of the world.
He was that, and more.
Evan Tanner has left the rest of us trapped in this life and has moved on to the next stage of existence where he will undoubtedly find adventure beyond his wildest imagination. In doing so he has left the world a little less interesting…
Matt Lindland and Team Quest:
We at Team Quest are saddened to hear the news of Evan Tanner. He was and always will be a part of the Team Quest Family. As much as we tried to make Evan feel a part of the pack, he was a lone wolf and tried hard not to fit the mold. He liked to do it his way. – God Bless
Monte Cox, fighter manager and president of Adrenaline MMA:
I'm really saddened by the news... Evan first fought for me in 1998 and was one of the guys I always enjoyed seeing at the shows, whether he was competing or not. He always had a big smile and a handshake waiting whenever we bumped into each other. The MMA community and everybody who was touched by him will miss him greatly."
Randy Couture, UFC heavyweight champion:
We're all going to sorely miss Evan Tanner. He was a tremendous talent in our sport, and in many ways, self-taught in all the skills that he possessed in mixed martial arts. In a lot of ways his passing is metaphorical for his life, because he was one of those people that isolated himself.
I wasn't really familiar with where he had gone. He was in Oregon; he was gone. He was here; he was gone. Nobody could really keep up with him, he just kind of moved at his own pace and in his own time. He never really checked in with anybody, 'hey, I'm moving here' and let you know he was going, he just kind of disappeared. So I had no idea how to get a hold of him or where he was.
He was in Oregon with us for a couple years, through his championship run. He stayed at my house for a while when he first moved from Texas, and he lived in the back of the gym at Team Quest for quite a long time too before Donita moved up and they got there own place up there. Trained with him almost every day when he was getting ready for fights. Then he moved out of Team Quest in Oregon, and went his own way.
Tito Ortiz, former UFC light heavyweight champion:
All my blessing to his family for sure. It's a shock to me still. I remember Evan being a really good guy, and a solid fighter, and it’s kind of heart shaking. I was really taken back from it when it happened, when I heard about it online. I can always be thankful that I had the chance to fight him and just to compete with the guy and be around the guy for competition. He's always been a solid guy."
Kendall Grove, last fighter to face Evan:
I didn't know Evan personally, but personally enough that I fought him. I know that he was a really, really good guy and the sport has lost a good person and a pioneer to the sport. We fought and shared that bond. My heart is out to his family. I'm praying for his family and him. I'm going to miss the guy.
Jason Leigh, a personal friend of Evan’s:
Evan at times could be very stubborn. If you asked him about something he'd answer with firsthand knowledge because if he didn't experience something, he'd tell you he didn't have an opinion on it.
He'd tell you things that you didn't want to hear, but at the same time you knew that if it was coming from Evan, he wasn't just blowing smoke and telling you something that you just wanted to hear. Everything about him was genuine.
He didn't care if people liked him or hated him. He just wanted them to know that what he said is really what he thought.
He had a genuine love for mankind. I think his ultimate goal was to use his UFC exposure to do his charity work for people that needed help.
He was a lot more than just a fighter. He really cared.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=7073&zoneid=13
thanks for your kind words, emmi.
Seems like he was a good man and a very good friend to you.
Sorry for the loss. Stay strong.
thanks cropdustress.
here are a couple more videos i thought i'd post. i don't expect anyone to watch all of these or read all of these articles, but just thought i'd post them in case anyone was interested.
this is a two part interview that i believe was done during the training leading up to the fight against kendall grove. evan talks about his philosophies on life and what he has learned in his life, making change in the world, kindness, his fascination with the world and reasons for adventuring, and trying to find purpose in the paths we follow...
the interview is called "for a better world".
"we've kind of run away with ourselves, run away from ourselves here in this society. we've lost touch. very few people get it... took me a while."
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBwjaPyqxYc
"i learned the things that truly matter. now i can live by it. one of the ultimate things a human can learn is kindness for their fellow humans, and understanding. i'd like to teach those things to my children."
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y0LadiZdOA
Tanner lived life to its fullest
by John McCarthy, FOXSports.com
September 11, 2008
I write this with a sad and heavy heart because as you have probably already heard, Evan Tanner died in the southern California desert earlier this week.
If there is one thing I have had too much of in my life, it is death — of many people who have come into my life in capacities both large and small. While Evan and I really only knew each other from the world of fighting, he was one of those individuals that you liked because of his easygoing nature and the simplicity with which he went through life.
He was also one of the most complex men I knew with some of the demons he struggled through life with. Nobody is perfect and Evan was right there with the rest of us, but he lived his life the way he wanted.
Many people figure that since he was a fighter and was seen on TV, he must have been doing pretty well financially. They figure that he would have a home, a nice car and some money in the bank.
That was not the life that Evan Tanner led. The fact that Evan died alone in the middle of nowhere should not be dismissed as mere coincidence. It is the final chapter of a story that seemed to carry on throughout the life of a man known as a nomadic spirit who was happy being himself no matter what anyone else thought.
When trying to characterize or categorize Evan Tanner you would be hard-pressed to come up with one word to describe such a deeply complex individual. Most people know of Evan because he was a fighter, but when you got to know Evan, you knew a man who was much more than a fighter.
Fighting was something he did. Why? Because it was part of the adventure, something that made life interesting, something that made him feel alive. That is why he was in the middle of the desert out on his own discovering God-knows-what but doing it on his own terms in a manner that made sense to him and made him feel that he was living his life in a way that meant the most to him. It was like an adventure because he was one of the ultimate adventurers, a philosophical renaissance man who lived many lives.
I first met Evan before his first fight in the UFC back at UFC 18. He was matched against Darryl Gholar, a tremendous wrestler who was a three-time national champion in Greco Roman and had been an alternate on the 1988 Olympic team.
Evan was coming into the UFC with some great credentials as a fighter. He had been fighting in the United States Shootfighting Association in Texas and had recently won the Pancrase Neo-Blood Tourney. He was a solid wrestler who threw big knees and elbows and it was said that he learned his submission game from video tapes.
The fight was a good fight with Darryl getting the best of Evan early but not being able to really hurt Evan or crack his defenses. Evan pushed the pace and eventually broke Darryl with a series of knees and elbows that allowed Evan to get a rear naked choke that ended the fight in the first round. It was a great start in the UFC for a young fighter with an unlimited amount of potential.
Through the years, I was inside the cage to witness Evan in good times and bad. Evan's first attempt at a world title came at UFC 30 in New Jersey against the Huntington Beach Bad Boy Tito Ortiz. On that night, I remember Evan coming into the cage with his "Believe in the Power of One" line that he really lived by. The music that was playing was screaming out "Right Here, Right Now" but that was all the theatrics that accompanied Evan Tanner into the cage that night. In contrast, Tito had a fireworks show that was unbelievable and entered to a song written for him claiming "Tito's in the house."
After starting the fight, there was a short feeling-out period when Evan and Tito clinched. I had no idea that it was the beginning of the end for Evan that night. With double underhooks secured, Tito lifted Evan up in a body lock and slammed him to the ground causing Evan to bounce his head off the floor of the Octagon, knocking him unconscious. If you look at the Octagon that is used today, it was constructed and engineered to help absorb the shock of slams because of Evan's fight with Tito back at UFC 30.
Evan obviously went on to bigger and better things in the sport of MMA. In his second shot at a world title he won the UFC middleweight championship when he defeated David Terrell in a fight where the oddsmakers had Evan as a 3-to-1 underdog. He proved every one of them wrong, surviving a deep guillotine attempt at the beginning of the fight and then doing what Evan did best, launching an endless blitz of punches and elbows that drew a referee stoppage for a TKO victory in the first round.
When you stop and think about it, this man was the top fighter in the UFC's middleweight division and he really never fully practiced his trade. Now don't get me wrong, Evan trained and when he trained, he trained hard. But Evan trained only when he had a fight coming up. As he explained it to me, there were just too many things to do in life, too many sights to see, too much life to experience to spend it all training in a gym somewhere.
I am going to miss Evan Tanner. I will miss the shy and quiet, good-hearted, give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back-even-though-it's-the-only-shirt-he-has man that was Evan Tanner.
Evan, everybody dies, but how many of us have really lived? I believe that you really did and hopefully you have found the peace you have been searching for.
God bless Evan.
http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/8547228/Tanner-lived-life-to-its-fullest
I did just read joe rogan's write up and thought it was great.
Well it's back to work for me, just wanted to check in on the thread and make sure you're still ok mookie
09/19/05, 05/09/06, 05/10/06
Stop by:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14678777351&ref=mf
yeah, i thought joe did a good job on that one. a lot of things are being written by people i didn't expect, i think. everything's been overwhelmingly positive, so it helps. thanks, leafs.
"Inside MMA" preview: Bas Rutten shares a favorite Evan Tanner story
by MMAjunkie.com Staff
Sep 12, 2008
On tonight's edition of "Inside MMA" on HDNet, hosts Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten discuss the recent death and some of their favorite memories of UFC veteran Evan Tanner.
As part of our partnership with the weekly MMA news show, we now have an exclusive preview of that "Inside MMA" segment and tonight's show, which airs at a special time of 8 p.m. ET.
"Good fighter (and) I don't think there's anybody that didn't like him," Rutten said of Tanner. "I mean, there's not a bad bone in his body. It's very unfortunate, and when I heard the news, it really got me."
Rutten also shared one of his favorite stories about traveling to Japan with Tanner and a (very) late night of drinking and hanging out. Check out the embedded clip for the full story.
"There was an enigma about the man -- a puzzle even to those who knew him well," Rice said. "Evan liked to go out on his own, and that is the way that he passed."
For more on Tanner, check out tonight's full episode. Panelists on tonight's episode include EliteXC heavyweight Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin and Tapout Magazine publisher Bob Pittman.
Tonight's episode also features an exclusive interview with Tom Atencio in which the Affliction Vice President discusses the postponement of the "Day of Reckoning" card.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/5273/inside-mma-preview-bas-rutten-shares-a-favorite-evan-tanner-story.mma
ufc.com
i remember this bulletin that evan posted on myspace. this is from a post made on sherdog in a remembering evan tanner thread...
"I knew Evan for a little over 3 years. We started out as Myspace buddies, as I'm sure many people did. During his darkest times, he and I would write back and forth, and over the course of many months, actually established a friendship.
In mid 2006, a very close friend of mine was diagnosed with leukemia, and was in need of a blood/marrow donor. Her blood type was very rare, and blood and tissue matches for a Filipino girl with her blood type were not easily found. I was releasing bulletins almost hourly on Myspace, calling in favors to friends at hospitals, etc. in hopes of helping her. Evan saw one of my bulletins and asked if he could help. Over the course of the next several weeks, he blogged for my friend, and several possible donors answered the call. She ended up later having a relative who was a match, but the point here is that Evan managed to find 8 people, that actually went through testing to become a donor for this girl. It wasn't even a second thought for him to help.
Evan and I remained fairly close, through e-mail and phone. Early last year, when I was diagnosed with a serious illness of my own, he was very supportive, and sometimes made more of a difference in my down days then he could have realized. When he finally came back to the UFC, Evan, notoriously publicity shy, allowed my tiny little show to have his very first interview back. He stayed on with us for about 40 minutes, and although a bit shy at first, he opened up and had alot of fun with us. We were very starstruck at the time, especially since he decided to allow us his first interview back.
My story isn't as poignant as some, but it is a way for me to share with people what a great guy Evan was. Selfless. He gave away, far more than he kept. GB (a close friend of Tanner's) and I spoke today, and he talked me into putting this out there for you guys. Evan touched so many lives, and I am so grateful to have known him, on any level.
The girl we set out to help, Ivy V., added this on my blog:
I found out the news this morning. Shock and disbelief don't even begin to convey how I reacted. But my first thoughts were of course his family and you. I don't know if you remember, but through you, Evan was able to help me find so many donors. While I didn't receive those in particular, 2 of those donors are actually still on my list in the registry after 2 years. It's rare to find those people who are my type, but even rarer (is that a word?) to have them kept on a certain person's list.
Evan sent me such kind words along with other people that lifted me out of my depression. I have no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be here today without his and your help.
All my love to you and Evan's family - if you touch base with his camp, please, please, please send me deepest condolences and utter thanks. Throughout the year and a half of my remission Evan would drop a line once in awhile, which would keep me going. He even told me that when I get 100% better, he would totally support my dream of being a fighter myself and got a chuckle out of my "Cold As Ice...Cream" name that I wanted. I told him also that I was going to wear pink shorts in the ring and he was like, "To match Pepto Bismal?"
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=VideoPlayer.home&gid=14523
"mma live, episode 18"
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3581590&categoryId=2881270
Evan Tanner 1971 - 2008 By Machinemen:
http://blip.tv/file/1258781
09/19/05, 05/09/06, 05/10/06
i must watch that one, leafs! i have heard that he and bas had some wild stories.
Evan Tanner "Celebration of Life" Service
September 27th, 2008
2:00 p.m.
Civic Center
401 South Buchanan Street
Amarillo TX
if anyone wishes to send flowers (...don't send flowers, evan would have considered it a waste) or cards, they can be sent to:
Jeff Tanner
504 S Harrison Street
Amarillo TX 79101
The family has also set up a memorial fund with The Amarillo National Bank.
"Tanner’s rich life led to his ultimate bout"
On Sports
By Kerry Eggers
The Portland Tribune, Sep 18, 2008
When he died in the searing Southern California desert heat Sept. 8, Evan Tanner left a few questions unanswered.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder – who lived in Portland from 2001-05 while competing for Team Quest Fight Club – was a paradox.
He made his living trying to beat the bejesus out of anyone courageous enough to step into a ring with him.
But Tanner had another side. He loved movies and literature. Under “favorites” on his Myspace page, he listed dozens of films and even more books, including “Siddhartha,” “Dr. Zhivago,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Out of Africa,” along with the works of Walt Whitman, Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.
“Evan was a dynamic Renaissance man,” says John Hayner, who served as Tanner’s manager at the time of his death at age 37. “He hated to be labeled. He often would say, ‘I’m not a fighter. I’m an artist, a writer, a poet.’ He was anything but just a fighter, but he was mostly an adventurer.”
Tanner’s final adventure came in the mountain area near Palo Verde, Calif., with temperatures hitting 114 degrees.
Was it suicide? Those who knew him best say they don’t believe it was.
“I don’t think he had a death wish,” says Randy Couture, the Team Quest co-founder who became the UFC’s only five-time champion. “But he was a little out there, and he liked to push the envelope.”
•••
Tanner grew up in Amarillo, Tex., a high school state champion wrestler with wanderlust in his heart. He was supposed to wrestle at Oklahoma State but got mononucleosis and dropped out of school. He wound up moving coast to coast, working odd jobs — laying TV cable for a while — to make ends meet.
He landed back in Amarillo for a while, was introduced to ultimate fighting and then, at age 26, to Danita Drown, six years younger.
“Evan was very extreme,” says Drown, now Danita Rigert, 31, married with an 18-month-old son and living in Gresham. “He did everything crazy and free and wild. It was different from my lifestyle, but at the same time, we had a lot in common.”
After dating for three months, Tanner moved in with Rigert. They lived in Amarillo for a year before Tanner moved to Portland to train at Team Quest with such notables as Couture and Matt Lindland. Rigert soon followed, and they lived together in Portland for four years.
Before Rigert hit town, Tanner camped out at Couture’s house for a few weeks.
“I probably knew Evan as well as anybody got to know him,” says Couture, now a Las Vegas resident who is coming out of retirement to fight Brock Lesnar in UFC 91 in November. “He was a unique individual who stayed to himself and never opened up or connected with a lot of people. It’s almost metaphorical that he passed the way he passed — in the desert, by himself.”
Tanner and Lindland had met a year earlier at UFC 29 in Japan, Lindland’s debut fight. Lindland shared a locker with Tanner’s opponent and, after sizing the two up, thought, “this guy (Tanner) is going to get killed. Then Evan went out and destroyed the guy.”
They kept in touch and grew closer when Tanner moved to Portland.
“Even was very pleasant, but he was definitely an odd individual,” says Lindland, a 2000 Olympic silver medalist wrestler who fought for the UFC middleweight title. “The thing that struck me the most about him was this: He came out here to be a part of the team and learn from us and be coached by us, but when it came to anything outside of the training room, the guy refused anybody’s help. It was always, ‘I got this handled.’
“He had our support, but he was kind of the black sheep. He wanted to be this lone wolf, this outsider.”
“Evan was a hard case,” says former Team Quest training partner Ryan Schultz. “He was going to do things his way. But I loved the guy.”
For a while, Tanner lived in a trailer behind the Team Quest camp.
“One morning, Evan came in and couldn’t open his eyes,” Couture recalls. “They were like fire red. He said, ‘I had no access to water and couldn’t take my contacts out, so I left them in for a few days.’
“Finally, he had to peel the contacts off ... and peeled a bunch of cells off his cornea in the process. It was like gravel in the eyes. We got him some eyedrops, and he was fine in a couple of days.”
Stories. There are many stories about Tanner’s thirst for adventure.
“Once, he bought a sailboat but didn’t know how to sail,” Lindland says with a chuckle. “Fortunately, he wrecked it in the harbor before he got it out to sea.”
Rigert’s father owned a Harley-Davidson shop in Amarillo.
“I had a motorcycle, and Evan decided to ride it to Texas to trade it in for a new one,” she says.
In the dead of winter.
“He drove through snow and ice,” Rigert says. “It was freezing cold, but he made it.”
Tanner told Rigert of the time when, on a trek through the Grand Canyon, he saw a sign that warned, “Do not attempt to hike down this trail and back in one day.”
“So he did it, with only one bottle of water, and almost died of dehydration,” she says. “He doesn’t know how he made it.”
•••
Schultz met Tanner when Schultz joined Team Quest in 2003.
“Evan was one of the best fighters of all-time,” says Schultz, a former International Fight League lightweight champion who recently signed a five-event deal to fight in Japan. “He was one of the hardest-working guys in the sport. He was a great training partner and a warrior through and through.
“He was also an intellectual — at times, almost too smart for his own good. He overthought a lot of stuff. Evan was a very deep person. He was spiritual in the sense of trying to figure out why we’re here on earth.”
Couture saw the intellectual side of Tanner, too.
“Evan was very bright,” Couture says. “Everything he learned in (mixed martial arts) before he came to us, he learned out of a book.
“He was a member of this crazy ‘Classic Book Club.’ He was getting all these leatherbound gold-rimmed books like ‘Moby Dick.’ He sat around and read them. A very interesting guy, a nice guy to be around. But he had his demons.”
Those demons came primarily from drinking.
“The monkey he couldn’t get off his back,” Schultz says, “was alcohol.”
•••
”Evan was an alcoholic,” Rigert says. “We had a lot of differences because of that problem. And I wanted a family. He wasn’t quite ready for that.”
Rigert left Tanner in 2005 and returned to Amarillo.
“It was hard for both of us,” Rigert says. “We were best friends. But it was better that way.”
Tanner’s comrades at Team Quest were trying to help him.
“At our gym, the guys are one big family,” says Lindland, an Eagle Creek resident who is the Republican candidate for state representative from District 52 in this November’s election. “When you train and bleed and sweat together, you develop a certain bond. You can say certain things to guys. You can be brutally honest. There were a lot of us who said to Evan, ‘Hey, you got a problem, bro. Do something about it.’ "
Lindland says he first knew the problem was serious when he got a call from Rigert, wondering where Tanner was.
“Turns out he was hanging out at the beach on the Sandy River and wouldn’t come home,” Lindland says. “The next day, after he sobered up, I was like, ‘We might have a problem here.’ "
Schultz didn’t like what he was seeing in his friend.
“Once, I went to his house after he’d been drinking quite a few days straight,” Schultz says. “We had a physical altercation, me trying to get him to snap out of it.
“At times, he would snap out of it. Imagine how good he’d have been (as a fighter) if he’d been sober. He would destroy his body with alcohol, and then he’d train back and be a physical specimen again. He’d clean up and put in four or five workouts a day to catch up when he was doing the wrong things.
“I looked up to Evan for a long time after I got here,” Schultz says somberly, “but you realized after awhile that alcohol was a demon for him.”
“It always amazed me,” Lindland observes, “that Evan could put down the drinking long enough to get in peak shape to perform. Then he’d go out and celebrate, and beat himself up because he was mad at himself for getting drunk. It was a vicious cycle. He was able to do those things and still be a champion.”
Tanner won the middleweight title at UFC 51, then lost it in UFC 53, both in early 2005. By October, Rigert was gone, and Schultz had ended their friendship.
“I couldn’t watch Evan do what he was doing to himself with alcohol,” Schultz says. “I said, ‘Look, I’m not going to be your drinking buddy.’ We went our own ways.”
Everything quickly came to a head.
“Typically, guys don’t quit drinking on their own,” Lindland says. “Well, Evan did everything on his own. I thought for a while he was going to handle it on his own. But after four years of dealing with it, it was like, ‘Stop drinking and get things together.’
“We gave him an ultimatum — get help or you’re going to leave. Our attitude was, ‘We’ve had enough; your drinking is affecting everybody else.’ That’s when he decided to leave.”
•••
Tanner went south, living first in Las Vegas, then in Oceanside, Calif., though he still had a house in Troutdale. He fought only occasionally — once in 2006 and twice in 2008.
“He lost them both,” Lindland says of the recent bouts. “Lost to guys I thought he would just crush. He didn’t look so hot.”
By that time, the passion may have been gone.
“The way Evan funded his adventures was fighting,” says Hayner, a San Clemente, Calif., resident who worked with Tanner the past two years. “He did that, really, for 10 years. He would plan adventures for months and months, fight, then take four or five months off to go do adventures, so that he would have stories to tell his children.”
Hayner says Tanner had been renting an apartment on the beach in Oceanside and had gotten his personal life together.
“His alcohol problem was a thing of the past,” Hayner says. “He hadn’t been drinking in well over a year. He didn’t go through any specific treatment. His treatment was being in nature, going on hikes, things like that. Living across the street from the ocean, that was his treatment.”
Tanner amused himself, and kept in touch with fans, through a blog he did with SpikeTV. He made several trips to the desert, where he could be at one with himself and nature and experience a spiritual “cleansing.”
After learning of a friend’s recent treasure-hunting expedition in the the mountain area near Palo Verde, he wrote in late August about becoming motivated by “my insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration. I began to imagine what might be found in the deep reaches of this untracked desert. It became an obsessions of sorts. ‘Treasure’ doesn’t necessarily refer to something material. ... I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.”
In preparing for the trip, he added, “being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.”
A couple of weeks later, Tanner’s body was found. He had text-messaged a friend that his motorcyle had run out of gas, and that he was walking back to his camp a couple of miles away to get gas and water. He never made it.
•••
Suicide?
“It’s hard to say with Evan,” Schultz says. “I don’t think it was. I’m told he was waiting for the right (expedition) gear, to do it correctly. I don’t think he went out with the intentions to not come back.”
But what about the ominous post on his blog about potential death?
“A lot of people question that statement,” Rigert says. “He knew the risks of going into a desert at 100-plus degrees. It was a challenge. But that’s how he always lived. If people say you’re crazy for doing something, it made him want to do it even more.
“I don’t think he had any intentions of dying in the desert. I knew him well enough to say, that was not his plan.”
Hayner is even more certain.
“In no way, shape or form” was it suicide, he says. “I was at his house on Monday when UPS showed up with a new helmet he ordered online. He absolutely planned on coming home. He died looking for water, looking for the spring. The spring was right there, but ...”
Rigert was shocked — but not altogether surprised — when she learned of her ex’s demise.
“I was kind of mad,” she says. She pauses, then continues, her voice choking with emotion.
“It’s hard. Someone you spent a lot of your life with is very special to you. You always cherish that. I know how stubborn he was. I just wish help could have gotten to him somehow.
“I’ll always love him,” says Rigert, who moved from Amarillo to Gresham last December. “He was a great guy. I can’t say anything bad about him, and I’m thankful for that.”
Tanner’s life will be remembered during a ceremony at Sportfight 24 in the Rose Garden on Sept. 19. Lindland and Schultz will be there. The questions about Tanner’s ultimate fate will be, too.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=122168269890058500
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=videoPlayer.home&gid=14789
it seems like every day someone is revealing a new story. it helps to read them all, knowing that others are reading about him and his selfless nature. maybe some people will be inspired.
Evan Tanner Helps Build A Playground
by Nick Thomas
Nov 16, 2007
A Fighter with a big heart comes to Fort Worth to build a new playground for a low income school:
A Parent Teacher Association had been working hard to raise the funds needed to build a safe playground for the 870+ children attending this low-income school. A $5,000 grant that the school received for the playground had a stipulation. After raising the remaining funds needed for the playground equipment the school would have to build it themselves. They needed 150 volunteers to do the build successfully. A parent started contacting as many athletes as she could think of. She knew that strength and stamina was what the school was going to need to get the playground built in one day. There were few responses. Professional fighter, Evan Tanner of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) heard about the need for tough guys with big hearts and offered to fly in from Las Vegas to help.
"Your Cause is a good one." "I will be there," Evan Tanner simply stated.
The playground build was on Saturday, November 3rd. Starting at 8am and ending at 5pm when the playground was completed. Evan Tanner showed up bright and early with a smile on his face and ready to work.
Tanner spent the first part of the day building a rock climb side by side with a parent and some teachers. After that job was done he moved outside to the site and just jumped in and moved from one task to another. Seeing each task completed before he moved on to the next. Not once did he stand still unless it where for a picture with a fan.
"Tanner managed to nearly have a hand in putting together every part of this playground today." "He is amazing." "I have never seen anything like it," said a local volunteer.
After the equipment was up, concrete in, and everything leveled it was lunch time. Tanner had a few minutes to get some food in before he spent his lunch time signing autographs for the 50 or more kids attending. He brought trading cards and gave each child an autographed picture writing something inspirational on each one.
"The ones to my daughters say, Live strong and dream big and Live well, Laugh often, and Love much," revealed a fan.
He also signed a t-shirt here or there upon request. The children seemed to be in awe. He then met with some local heroes out in the parking lot. The local fire department showed up to support the build day. The bunch of heroes took part in getting some autographs as well. Once lunch was over he was back at work moving the mountain of mulch.
"That man is a machine, a human shovel," said a volunteer from a local church.
"I guarantee that Tanner moved a third of that mountain himself!" said a parent and volunteer.
"He brought the same intensity to the playground build that he brings to the octagon," stated a fan.
"He has the most heart of anyone I have ever met, a true inspiration." "Not too many people get to meet someone as humble and giving as Mr. Evan Tanner." "He flew here to work for strangers, for free." "He made this day for the kids even more special than I had hoped for." "It is nice to know that some athletes remember that they can make a difference outside of their sport." "I am Lucky to have met him," declared volunteer and Playground Leader.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2007/11/16/16403/932
thanks for checking it out, ceg. as i said, so many stories coming out now...makes a person feel better, you know?