Evan Tanner Passes Away

[MTG]

he made his return to the UFC in 2008 after almost two years away, it was a triumph of the human spirit and an inspiration, regardless of whose hand was raised at the end of the fight.

“My thought was that I’m in a position where I’ve done some things and some people look up to me a little bit and maybe something in my story can help inspire them or motivate them to get through some things or do something better,†said Tanner before his return against Yushin Okami at UFC 82 in March. “If that’s the case and it helps anybody else out, then it’s worth me facing the embarrassment.â€

He fell short in his final two bouts against Okami and Grove, but there was no keeping him down, and his off-time after the Grove bout was filled with more of his adventures, as well as participation in Harley-Davidson’s 105th anniversary celebration.

Sadly, there will be no more adventures, only memories of Evan Tanner.

“Evan was such a unique individual, and he was okay being an individual,†said Hayner. “He was okay with taking the path less traveled, and he often chose that harder path.â€

It was simply who he was. Just read the words he spoke to me before I wished him luck for his fight against Grove in June.

“Everything’s been about the journey,†he said. “I never really set out with goals for fighting; it’s been about the adventure along the way. When you’re on your death bed, it’s those stories, those little adventures that are going to be the things that you remember. It’s not so much getting there, but how you got there.â€

And he did it his way.

Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting
I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed
---Eddie Vedder, “Guaranteedâ€. The song playing on Evan Tanner’s myspace page.

Rest in Peace, Evan.

Man this is so sad the guy was not only a great fighter but he was also and amazing guy.

RIP evan tanner

 

[J]

WTF. How the heck did this happen. Tanner was an awesome fighter sad to hear he passed away.

R.I.P. Tanner.

 

[xtremebadass]

Dude...no...he kicked ass RIP dude

 

[thedeadite]

RIP TANNER.

What a great fighter, he really was always one of my favourite to watch a few years back.

 

[Wrestling Station]

How did he die? while sleeping or what?

That is one sad thing to hear for today

RIP Tanner.

 

[Millzy Pt. 2]

Damn I wanna know how he died,
Well that almost messed up my day

RIP Evan Tanner

 

[Acideyez]

Yeah it's so sad to hear about this. He was still pretty young. He always had exciting matches. RIP

 

[LadyHotrod]

Apparently, he went camping over the weekend and his motorcycle ran out of gas so he decided to walk back to town and died due to the high temperature (it was 114 degrees F).

 

[NinoBrown]

He was a great fighter. I remember him most for his jew fro.
RIP TANNER.