UFCDaily.com is reporting that Evan Tanner will fight Marvin Eastman at UFC 76 in September.
It has been widely speculated that Evan Tanner would make his long-awaited return to the UFC at UFC 76, but his opponent has been somewhat of a mystery so far. Marvin Eastman was originally rumored to be fighting Drew McFedries at UFC 77 but now it appears he will fight Tanner.
Evan Tanner won the UFC Middleweight title at UFC 51 by defeating David Terrell. Unfortunately, Tanner’s title reign was shortlived as he lost the belt to Rich Franklin in his first title defense at UFC 53. Tanners last fight was at UFC 59 in April of 2006 where he defeated Justin Levens by submission (Levens was a last minute replacement for the injured Jeremy Horn).
After that Tanner sort of “fell off the map” and took a hiatus from professional mixed martial arts. I’ve always been a big Evan Tanner fan and we have chronicled Evan’s time away from mma here on MMA HQ; from his rather unusual training sessions, to his attempt at a sort of MMA boarding school he called “The Foundation”, to his return to pro competition and joining the Chute Boxe US team.
I haven’t been able to confirm this fight and UFCDaily.com doesn’t list any sources for this announcment, so take it with a grain of salt.
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Just got your comment about our source…basic deduction. I knew the fight with McFedries was off and Eastman and Tanner we both on the card and were the only open spots left. The fight makes sense to give Tanner an easier opponent to ease back into UFC competition.
Thanks for the link!
Evan Tanner…a real class act. Can’t wait to see this warrior get back into the cage.
i remeber when he beat levens the crowd was going crazy,the people love him
Tanners a vet, look for him to use his clinch and big elbows on the ground. Im assuming this is going to be a middleweight fight? I remember he fought at 205 way back but he also fought at welter, so im thinking Eastman is dropping down to 185. He will be dropping alot of muscle if thats the case. If its at 205, Tanners in trouble, 185 Tanners a lock.
[...] to California to train with the Chute Boxe team there. Rumors began to surface that Tanner would return at UFC 76, and then that he would return at UFC 79. Well, Last week Evan stated that he was never offered any [...]