The Life of Evan Tanner

This past Wednesday marks the two year anniversary of the death of MMA legend Evan Tanner, one of the most interesting and enigmatic figures in all of sports.

Evan was blessed not only physically but mentally.  His love for reading started as a child and carried over into adulthood, where he would read stacks of philosphy books even while he prepared to step into a cage to fight another human being.  As is the case with most people with immense talents, Evan had personal demons that haunted him, none worse than the lack of relationship he had with his mother, father, and stepfather.  In typical Evan Tanner style he met each and every challenge head on.

In high school Evan, with no previous wrestling experience, tried out for the wrestling team.  He would go on to win back-to-back Texas state wrestling championships his junior and senior years.  Having conquered that challenge he moved to Iowa to attend medical school.  Evan excelled at school and made the dean's list, but before he completed his degree he dropped out of school.  Evan was fighting several personal demons at this time, namely his addiction to alcohol.

For the next several years, Evan traveled the country stopping only when he needed money, usually taking the most physically demanding jobs the town could offer.  Evan's travels led him back to his hometown of Amarillo in 1997 where he saw his first ever mixed martial arts fight and his life would never be the same.

With Evan's past history of wrestling dominance still fresh in everyone's mind, a local promoter approached Tanner about entering a MMA tournament.  Evan accepted this new challenge and dominated the tournament, winning three fights in one night.  Having steamrolled the night's competition in just over five minutes, Evan dedicated himself to learning every nuance of the sport.  He rented VHS tapes of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from the Gracie family and taught himself.  With his new ground skills he demolished the competition, just like he did years before in every wrestling gym across Texas.

After fighting his way to a 16-1 record, Evan was invited to the UFC where he would go on to win the Middleweight championship.  Even after reaching the pinnacle of the sport, Evan wasn't satisfied.  He wanted his legacy to be something more substantial than just being a famous UFC champion.  When he lost the title he decided he wanted to give underpriviledged young fighters, like he once was, the chance to get top notch MMA training without costing them a dime.  He worked tirelessly to make that dream come true.  Using his fight purse money he bought a place to house his group of fighters and worked on fixing the place up.  Shortly after welcoming his first student to the house they had a falling out and his dream was crushed before it really got off the ground.

With this setback, Evan began drinking again and his life began to take one strange turn after another.  He grew a massive, unruly beard that made him nearly impossible to recognize, bought a boat with no previous boating experience and subsequently sank it, and he began taking dangerous motorcycle trips across desolate stretches of California desert.

Out of the blue he decided that he was done with drinking and decided that the best chance he had to do some good in the world was to use his fame as a UFC fighter.  He was successful in his first UFC comeback fight but would lose his next two.

With his UFC career in jeopardy he decided that he needed some spiritual time to right himself and decided that an adventure into one of the many stretches of California desert was what he needed.  Telling his fans on his blog, “I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.”

Evan left from his apartment in Palo Verde, California on September 3rd with his motorcycle and carefully planned out survival supplies.  On the 4th of September Evan's water supply had run dry.  Evan planned for this and had satelite maps of a natural spring just five miles from his campsite.  What Evan didn't realize was that the maps he had were outdated.  The natural spring he expected to find was now a dry creek bed.  With the mercury hovering around 115 degrees he decided to take shelter under a small tree until the sun went down and he would walk the five miles back to camp.  Unfortunately Evan never made it back.  His body was found by the search and rescue crews just over a mile away from his camp.

The world lost an extremely caring, intelligent, and generous person the day Evan Tanner passed away and I hope that his resiliency in the face of daunting challenges will never be forgotten.  The forthcoming documentary "Once I was a Champion" should hopefully give voice to the causes Evan championed during his life.