Former Ultimae Fighting Championship middleweight (185 lb) champion Evan Tanner was found found dead earlier today at the age of 37. Tanner, who had been reported missing since Friday, was found in the Palo Verde mountain area, northeast of Brawley, CA.
Tanner, an avid blogger, had recently written on his web site, "I plan on going so deep into the desert than any failure of my equipment could cost me my life."
Sherdog.com has reported that Deana Epperson, who grew up across the street from Tanner in Amarillo, said he had texted friends on Thursday night saying he had run out of water as well as gas for his motorcycle.
Area police had been trying to find him since that time and found a body today who was identified as that of Tanner..
Tanner was of late one of the most colorful characters in MMA, sporting a 300 style beard and a large myspace following due to his highly controversial and entertaining blogs. Dave Melter writes " A high school wrestling state champion in Texas, [ Tanner] got talked into entering the Amarillo-based USWF by some friends. In the local pro wrestling oriented shoot group run by former UWF wrestler Steve Nelson, he quickly became its biggest star. He then started fighting in Japan with Pancrase, and his career highlight was in 2005 when he beat David Terrell to become UFC middleweight champion, but lost the title to Rich Franklin." Recently Evan had attempted a comeback to the UFC, but lost his first two bouts to Yushin Okami and TUF winner Kendall Grove.
Evan was truly posessed of a warriors spirit and an unmatched love for life. He will be dearly missed.
