Fatal Instinct

At the age of 37, Evan Tanner passed away late last week due to extreme heat exposure in the Southeastern part of California. A month prior to his death, Tanner blogged online about his upcoming trip to the desert.

“I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life. I’ve been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I’m going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.”

He talked about the trip as he did with any of his other adventurous journeys in life — with the same kind of curiousness, excitement, and throw-caution-to-the-wind spirit that personified who he was as a person and as an MMA fighter.

In a profession full of larger-than-life characters, Evan Tanner stood out amongst everyone else because he didn’t want to be part of the traditional crowd. He was his own man and drifted from Amarillo, Texas to Gresham, Oregon to Oceanside, California. What made Tanner such a fascinating personality in the MMA world was his ability to emotionally connect with the fans. He was a flawed person who didn’t try to sugercoat or hide his problems in life behind a veneer of marketing & spin. You felt like you knew Evan Tanner, even if you had never met him in person.

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Rashad Evans knocked out Chuck Liddell with a brutal punch to pull off a stunning upset tonight at UFC 88 in Atlanta.

It was the best moment of Evans’ young career, a powerful right-handed strike directly on the chin in the second round. That right hand firmly establishes the undefeated Evans as one of the up-and-coming stars of the UFC, and potentially a light heavyweight title contender.

On the other side of the coin, the loss was Liddell’s third in his last four fights, and it raises the question of whether The Iceman, long UFC’s biggest star, still has anything left. One of the most accomplished fighters in the history of the sport may be nearing retirement.

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