While very few details exist at the moment and the news isn’t official, it appears that former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner has been found dead in the California desert earlier today.
IVPressOnline.com is reporting that Imperial County Sheriff’s Department deputies discovered a man’s body in the Palo Verde mountain range earlier today. While authorities have not yet confirmed the body is actually Evan Tanner, Tanner has been missing for over a week. Friends of Tanner say they last heard from him last Wednesday and officially reported him missing this past Friday.
Authorities began a search for Tanner on Saturday and came across a campsite on Sunday where Tanner’s motorcycle was found. A plane search over the same area today revealed the body.
What makes this whole situation sadder than it already happens to be is the fact that Tanner more or less predicted his own death in a blog post before leaving for his hike through the desert. In an August 16th blog post, Tanner had the following to say:
I’ve been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.
For someone who has been a huge fan of Tanner and followed his career and recent struggles closely, this is somewhat peculiar. It almost seems that Tanner had finally reached the end of his rope and his personal demons got the best of him, and he set off on this journey to either finally emerge a new man or succumb to those demons.
I truly hope this was just a case of man-vs-nature and nature winning and not anything more. With temperatures reaching 115 degrees in the California desert, the heat can easily overcome anyone. I’ve personally hiked through Joshua Tree National Park in CA and the dry heat is deceiving because you don’t sweat as much and aren’t aware of how dehydrated you quickly become.
I believe there are people out there that just have a warrior spirit, whether it’s fighting or something, they’ve got to do it. It’s hard to identify with me; it’s just something I do. - Evan Tanner, 2005
Tanner has always been a free spirit and a very eloquent writer in expressing his feelings through his personal blog posts.
May he finally rest in peace.
Evan Tanner: 1971 - 2008
** UPDATE **
Evan Tanner’s management team at DFS Agency has confirmed Evan’s death to MMAWeekly.com
Tanner had trekked into the desert on a journey to “cleanse†himself, according to Douglas Vincitorio of DFS. “He went out to the desert to do a ‘cleansing’ as he called it. Kind of like ‘Survivor Man.’†These short trips were not new to Tanner, said Vincitorio. It is something that he has done numerous times over the years.
“What we were told is that (sheriff’s officials who found him) believe his motorcycle had run out of gas, so he went to walk out in like 115 to 118-degree heat,†said Vincitorio. “He was miles away from his camp. That’s where the helicopter found him. Right now, they just think that he succumbed to the heat.â€
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F*CK!!! man that is sh*tty, as a fan i am horribly saddened by this, but knowing his story i almost feel a sense of relief for Evan. there are two key points to this story that make it a little easier to take, one Evan is now free and clear of all the bad sh*t that has clouded his world over the last few years and number two is Evan probably died exactly how he would have wished to, out in nature the last place on Earth he felt free.
R.I.P. Evan Tanner you will be missed by all your fans!
wow man im sitting here trying to figure out what i really want to say about all of this but im sooo lost for words. how about this, if you guys feel the need to do something in memory of Evan Tanner then please think about this:
dont go out and buy the RIP Evan Tanner t-shirt unless the proceeds goto helping someone other then the company trying to cash in on this. instead give $10 to your favorite charity in Evan’s name to honor this fallen warrior.
I couldn’t believe this story when I saw it on AOL’s main page of all places. I know how huge of a fan you are of his Doc. Very sad, very sad indeed…RIP Evan, you were one of a kind!!!
Yeah its very sad. I still don’t know how I really feel about it. I’ve been kind of in a funk ever since I read about it last night.
Dont really even know why. I never met Evan or talked to him verbally, just via email and postal mail.
This is horrible. I never thought I was so emotionally attached to the sport and its fighters until I heard this news and I felt like someone I knew personally had passed away. I think this news is so shocking to me because when you think about these guys, you almost hold them up to be invincible to a certain extent. Life really is fragile.
That is too bad. I have always like and rooted for Tanner. He seemed like a really nice guy. I always enjoyed reading his blog, he was a really good writer.
Yeah put me int he not sure how I feel about this camp. I had mas respect for Evan as a person and a fighter. I actually hated to watch him fight sometimes cause I didn’t want to see him lose. I was really hoping he’d get a win over grove. This is sad, but what a way to go huh?..seems fitting. The sport has lost a real classy guy, a true diplomat of the sport. Good luck Evan wherever you are….you’ll be missed. Maybe now he can be free from the demons he’s been running from his whole life.
crazy!!!!!
MMA news has been really slow this week, since the Death of Evan Tanner everything else seems trivial and unimportant. Its pretty cool, like a week of silence for Evan. I noticed the UFC showed a RIP picture of Tanner at the beginning of Unleashed this week, hopefully that wont be all they do though, be nice to hear a few words about him at UFN next week.
yeah man, every time life throws up an “i gonna kick you in the asss” moment everyone seems to forget all the bullsh*t of what normally entertains us and we start to really stop and think for a minute. my father (who i call Pops) is a very wise man and in a time like this he would tell you this advice (something he told me a long time ago that really got me through some tough moments) he would say:
hug the ones you love and tell them you love them as much as you can, tell them how you feel about them share a memory, dont wait, do it now, if YOUR Pops calls and asks you to go golfing with him do it, even if you dont want to, because someday you wont be able to and then you WILL want to. when my grandma (a VERY important part or my life) died i didnt feel any regret about not saying i love you enough, not hugging and kiss her enough, and not telling her everything i wanted to say to her. because i did all those things. so thats my words of wisdom, thats enough with the sappy, crappy, sh*t, back to MMA. so who thinks Lesnar will beat Couture….. lol.
Not a fan, never was… hope he made peace with God before trekking out into the desert.
I news this week has been pathetic, it’ like the “flags” have been lowered to half mast across the board, but hey, its Friday, I hope the MMA news boards light back up soon.