411 Fighter Profile: Evan Tanner
Posted by Dustin James on 09.23.2008
On September 8, 2008 many of us lost a hero. Not only was Evan Tanner a great fighter, but he was somebody that everybody could admire. Join 411's Dustin James as we look back at the career that was, Evan Tanner.
Evan Tanner. The name alone can send chills down your spine. It doesn't matter to me what anybody else thinks about Evan Tanner's MMA career. The guy is a true hall-of-famer. His MMA record is a respectable 32-8 and out of those 40 fights, only 7 of them lasted longer than one round. And usually, if the fight went on past the first round, Tanner lost the fight. That's how incredible Tanner was as a fighter. He wanted to dominate you from the beginning of the fight to the point that his fight's didn't last all that long. In just his fourth professional fight Tanner won his first MMA title. He won the USWF heavyweight title and never lost it. He was always looking to improve as a fighter by jumping from various MMA camps such as Team Quest, American Top Team, American Chute Boxe, and Hard Knocks Kickboxing. Tanner battled personal demons in his life as well. He was an alcoholic, however he was able to put aside his problems and focus on bettering his career. The pinnacle of his career was no doubt winning the UFC middleweight title. It always seemed that Tanner was never happy just sitting around. He wanted to go out and experience everything that life had to offer. Join me as I look back at both the career and life that was Evan Tanner.......
Early Life
Evan Tanner was born on February 11, 1971 in Amarillo, Texas. He went to and graduated from Caprock High School in 1989. While in high school Tanner won the Texas State Wrestling Championship as a Junior and a Senior, which was made all that more impressive seeing as he started wrestling as a Sophomore. Tanner tried college out, however it wasn't his thing. He returned to his hometown of Amarillo, Texas and while there his friends convinced him to enter a local MMA tournament. Not only did Tanner enter the event with no training......he won the whole thing (the tournament featured future UFC star Paul Buentello). This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Tanner had a new career on his hands.
After winning the tournament Tanner taught himself submission and grappling techniques using DVDs from the Gracie Family. Not only was this a brave move for Tanner, but it helped him win the United Shoot Wrestling Federation's Heavyweight Title, a title which Tanner never lost. After competing in local shows in states such as Texas and Iowa, Tanner went overseas to fight in Japan and this is where he made his debut for the Pancrase promotion. Tanner went on to to win 5 fights for Pancrase and he also continued to defend his USWF heavyweight title back in the US. Tanner felt there was only one more obstacle to conquer and that was...the UFC.
Tanner's UFC debut came at UFC 18 where he defeated Darrel Gholar via submission. He then went on to defeat Valeri Ignatov at UFC 19 and fought for Pancrase and USWF once more before Tanner decided to take some time off from fighting. At this point, Tanner was 20-2 as a professional MMA fighter. Little did Tanner know, that when he decided to return to fighting...he would become more popular than ever before.
Tanner made his return to the UFC at UFC 29 where he defeated Lance Gibson via TKO. After that, Tanner decided to try and go for the UFC light heavyweight title which was held by Tito Ortiz. However, at the time Ortiz was considered one of the best fighters in the World and Tanner came up short. At this point Tanner decided to make a decision that would change his fighting career for the better. He joined up with Team Quest in Gresham, Oregon and not only found a great place for him to live, but a great camp to help Tanner improve his fighting skills. Tanner then went 8-1 in the UFC (his loss came at the hands of Rich Franklin) before he ended up earning himself a shot at the vacant UFC middleweight championship against David Terrell at UFC 51.
Tanner won his first and only UFC title in just 4 minutes and 35 seconds when he defeated David Terrell by KO. However, the biggest fight of Tanner's career was coming up next. Tanner was set to defend his newly won UFC middleweight championship against a man who had previously defeated him in the UFC's light heavyweight division, Rich "Ace" Franklin. Not only was the fight for the UFC middleweight title, but the winner would become a coach on season 2 of "The Ultimate Fighter". An honor that Tanner wanted bad. However, he came up short when Franklin won the fight in the 4th round after the doctor's decided to stop the fight.
After losing to Franklin, Tanner fought twice more in the UFC when he lost to David Loiseau, but ended up defeating Justin Levens. It was then that he had decided to take some time off from the UFC to start Team Tanner, a training camp for up-and-coming fighters. However, things didn't quite work out as planned and Tanner made his long awaited return to the UFC at UFC 82 on March 1 of this year. Tanner ended up losing to Yushin Okami via KO, but he wasn't going to let that loss stop his comeback.
On June 21, 2008, Tanner fought what would be his last MMA fight against "Ultimate Fighter Season 3" winner Kendall Grove. Tanner lost the fight due to a split decision in a very close fight. It just wasn't meant to be and Tanner's comeback to the UFC wasn't starting out as well as he had planned.
MMA Career
Win, Paul Buentello, Submission, Round 1, 2:20 USWF 4, Amarillo, Texas - April 12, 1997
Win, Gary Nabors, Submission, Round 1, 2:21 USWF 4, Amarillo, Texas - April 12, 1997 Win, Mike Kennedy, Submission, Round 1, 1:29 USWF 4, Amarillo, Texas - April 12, 1997 Win, Heath Herring, Verbal submission, Round 1, 6:19 - Won USFW Heavyweight Title USWF 7, Amarillo, Texas - October 18, 1997
Win, Jesse Gonzalez, Submission, Round 1, 1:15 PSDA, Texas - November 22, 1997 Win, Joe Frailey, Submission, Round 1, 0:56 PSDA, Texas - November 22, 1997 Loss, Heath Herring, Submission, Round 1, 8:20 PSDA, Texas - November 22, 1997 Win, Rusty Totty, Submission, Round 1, 1:36 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 8, Amarillo, Texas - March 28, 1998 Win, Wade Kroeze, TKO, Round 1, 1:00 Gladiators 2, Iowa - April 18, 1998 Win, Dennis Reed, Submission, Round 1, 1:20 Gladiators 2, Iowa - April 18, 1998 Win, Tony Castillo, TKO, Round 1, 4:06 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 9, Texas - June 20, 1998 Win, Ikuhisa Minowa, Submission, Round 1, 4:05 Pancrase 1998 Neo-Blood Tournament, Tokyo, Japan - July 7, 1998
Win, Kousei Kubota, Submission, Round 1, 2:23 Pancrase 1998 Neo-Blood Tournament, Tokyo, Japan - July 7, 1998 Win, Justin McCully, Submission, Round 1, 5:07 Pancrase 1998 Neo-Blood Tournament, Tokyo, Japan - July 26, 1998 Win, Kiuma Kunioku, Decision Pancrase 1998 Anniversary Show, Tokyo, Japan - September 14, 1998 Win, Gene Lydick, Submission, Round 1, 4:15 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 12, Amarillo, Texas - October 24, 1998 Win, Ryushi Yanagisawa, Submission, Round 1, 2:24 Pancrase Advance 12, Urayasu, Chiba, Japan - December 19, 1998
Win, Darrel Gholar, Submission, Round 1, 7:57 UFC 18: Road To The Heavyweight Title, New Orleans, Louisiana - January 8, 1999 Win, Valeri Ignatov, TKO, Round 1, 2:58 UFC 19: Ultimate Young Guns, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi - March 5, 1999 Win, Mike Cizek, Submission, Round 1, 2:06 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 13, Amarillo, Texas - March 20, 1999 Loss, Leon Dijk, TKO, Round 1, 11:39 Pancrase: Breakthrough 4, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan - April 18, 1999 Win, Venny Nixon, Submission, Round 1, 1:07 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 14, Lubbock, Texas - April 24, 1999 Win, Raoul Romero, TKO, Round 1, 6:59 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 17, Texas - July 17, 2000 Win, Travis Fulton, Submission, Round 1, 4:31 - Defended USWF Heavyweight Title USWF 18, Amarillo, Texas - November 25, 2000 Win, Lance Gibson, TKO, Round 1, 4:48 UFC 29: Defense Of The Belts, Tokyo, Japan - December 16, 2000 Loss, Tito Ortiz, KO, Round 1, 0:32 - For UFC Light Heavyweight Title UFC 30: Battle On The Boardwalk, Atlantic City, New Jersey - February 23, 2001
Win, Homer Moore, Submission, Round 2, 0:55 UFC 34: High Voltage, Las Vegas, Nevada - November 2, 2001 Win, Elvis Sinosic, TKO, Round 1, 2:06 UFC 36: Worlds Collide, Las Vegas, Nevada - March 22, 2002 Win, Chris Haseman, Decision UFC 38: Brawl At The Hall, London, England - July 13, 2002 Win, Shannon Ritch, Submission, Round 1 FCFF: Fighting Against Cancer, Portland, Oregon - February 15, 2003 Loss, Rich Franklin, TKO, Round 1, 2:40 UFC 42: Sudden Impact, Miami, Florida - April 25, 2003 Win, Phil Baroni, TKO, Round 1, 4:42 UFC 45: Revolution, Uncasville, Conneticut - November 21, 2003 Win, Phil Baroni, Decision UFC 48: Payback, Las Vegas, Nevada - July 19, 2004 Win, Robbie Lawler, Submission, Round 1, 2:22 UFC 50: The War of 04, Atlantic City, New Jersey - October 22, 2004 Win, David Terrell, TKO, Round 1, 4:35 - Won UFC Middleweight Title UFC 51: Super Saturday, Las Vegas, Nevada - February 5, 2005 Loss, Rich Franklin, TKO, Round 4, 3:25 - Loss UFC Middleweight Title UFC 53: Heavy Hitters, Atlantic City, New Jersey - June 4, 2005 Loss, David Loiseau, TKO, Round 2, 4:15 UFC: Fight Night 2, Las Vegas, Nevada - October 3, 2005 Win, Justin Levens, Submission, Round 1, 3:15 UFC 59: Reality Check, Anaheim, California - April 15, 2006 Loss, Yushin Okami, KO, Round 2, 3:00 UFC 82: Pride Of A Champion, Columbus, Ohio - March 1, 2008
Loss, Kendall Grove, Decision UFC: Ultimate Fighter Season 7 Finale - June 21, 2008
The Future
Evan Tanner was found dead on September 8 in the desert-like region just north of Brawley, California. Tanner's body was found 2 miles away from his reported camp site after Tanner had tried to hike to nearby Clapp Springs to some anticipated wet springs that had seemingly dried out. Tanner had succumbed to the temperatures that had reached a reported 118 degrees. Many people feel as though Tanner wasn't happy in his life unless he was challenging himself. By camping in a desert-like region with temperatures over 100 degrees.....Tanner was definitely challenging himself. However, this was one fight that Tanner didn't win. Tanner will always be remembered for his wacky hairstyles, facial hair, and good natured personality. We are all better for getting to know Evan Tanner while he was alive. If more people were like Evan Tanner, the world be a better place. Evan Tanner, you will be missed not only by this writer, but by millions and millions of MMA fans. Rest in peace.
