Renaissance Man
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 on September 8, 2008. If there is one thing I have had too much of in my life, it
is death. Obviously not to me
personally, but to 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 easy going 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, 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 that 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
that was much more than a fighter.
Fighting was something he did and why? Because it was part of the adventure, something that made
life interesting, something that made him feel alive and 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, like it was an
adventure because he was one of the ultimate adventurer’s, a philosophical
renaissance man that 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 3 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 that threw big knees and elbows and
it was said that he learned his submission game from videotapes. The fight was a good fight with Darryl Gholar getting the
best of Evan in the early parts of the fight 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
both good times and bad. Evans
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 of the flooring 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 Evans 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 that the odds makers 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 the fact
that 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 he only trained 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 sites 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 of his back even though it is 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.
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