How good was Evan Tanner?

[Mbetz1981]

Little known fact:

Tanner lost to Guy Mezger early in his career. I believe it was at Uswf 3, but I would need to double check my video collection. I have a copy of the event, and it was horribly shot on a handheld camera.

The first few Uswf events aren't even listed on mma record websites, but there are appearances by some early pioneers, (Herring, Mezger, Don Frye, Tanner, Paul Buentello, Larry Parker, Ron Tripp, Paul Jones.)

 

[American_Bear]

Notable wins over:

- Heath Herring
- Minowaman
- Phil Baroni 2x
- Robbie Lawler

Almost 11 years that we lost a great fighter. Looking back at his career, how good was Tanner?

Evan was very well rounded for his time but 1 of his wins over Baroni should not have counted

 

[vindaloo]

i always kind of cringed at his skills but the dude was a physical beast and if he got on top he was impressive. Could of been a lot better too given the coaching situation.

 

[Khabib Fan]

Good for his time. I think he would have beat Franklin if he had a good gym to train at.

 

[JSN]

Why all the hate? Tito beat rashad evans in 07 and got screwed over for that point dedication which was b.s. and the injuries mattered but I'm sure you'll disagree. 04-06 Tito could be a top ten lhw right now .
Rashad goes on the next September to take Icemans head clean off .

how the hell do you figure that point deduction was BS. It was super blatant, super long, and saved him from being taken down, and IIRC it wasn't his only fence grab that fight.

 

[Tyr XIII]

For a guy who learn MMA via video and training in his garage....he was pretty damn good.

this

he learned how to grapple watching videos and replicating it.
Thats actually a sign of a huge talent. Probably would of be absolutely great today with real training

 

[AlwaysWonder]

Notable wins over:

- Heath Herring
- Minowaman
- Phil Baroni 2x
- Robbie Lawler

Almost 11 years that we lost a great fighter. Looking back at his career, how good was Tanner?

As a person...he was a legend.

 

[Lek]

Walked out to Jimi Hendrix. Evan seemed to be a spiritual guy looking for answers. One of my favorites...

 

[Blayt7hh]

I think part of what made him great is he had a mind for fighting. That’s why he was able to be a well rounded fighter in an era where fighters weren’t well rounded. Later in his career we saw him running into other fighters that had the benefit of seeing guys like him mix skills together, and he struggled then. It’s impossible to say how good he would be today if he was 18 in 2008 and started training then.

it actually legitimately depresses me some to this day when he comes up. He was the first fighter I actively followed. He was a super interesting guy and I wish I could have known him

 

[Davis Pingree]

how the hell do you figure that point deduction was BS. It was super blatant, super long, and saved him from being taken down, and IIRC it wasn't his only fence grab that fight.

If you arent cheating you aint trying im a huge tito fan get off my back sherbro. Lol relax bud h3 grabbed the fence like 3 times ive seen way worse with zero point loss ala aldo/mendes 1 and that determened a fight .

That was the type of thing i was calling b.s the fact that he had a point taken not that he grabbed the fence.. how many times have you seen a damn point taken seriously??

 

[evantannerbook]

Notable wins over:

- Heath Herring
- Minowaman
- Phil Baroni 2x
- Robbie Lawler

Almost 11 years that we lost a great fighter. Looking back at his career, how good was Tanner?

Pretty amazing career if you ask me.

 

[pankrat]

He was great for the era and the limited training he had.

However, knocking out Terrell fucked him up. It gave him too much confidence in his standup and it cost him in his fights against Franklin and Loiseau. He should have stuck to his grappling and ground game. instead he stood and traded with both of them.

When you have 21 submission wins, sometimes its best to focus on what you are best at.

He didnt try to stand with Loiseau, he dominated him with grappling for a round and a half but at one point got reserved and right away took an elbow that didnt expect. It was hard and opened a cut, that's the story of that fight.
Tanner was a better fighter than Loiseau imo and would favour him to win a rematch

 

[ticho123]

If you arent cheating you aint trying im a huge tito fan get off my back sherbro. Lol relax bud h3 grabbed the fence like 3 times ive seen way worse with zero point loss ala aldo/mendes 1 and that determened a fight .

That was the type of thing i was calling b.s the fact that he had a point taken not that he grabbed the fence.. how many times have you seen a damn point taken seriously??

How many people have gotten away with drunk driving? Jon Jones getting arrested is bs!!!

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

He was great for the era and the limited training he had.

However, knocking out Terrell fucked him up. It gave him too much confidence in his standup and it cost him in his fights against Franklin and Loiseau. He should have stuck to his grappling and ground game. instead he stood and traded with both of them.

When you have 21 submission wins, sometimes its best to focus on what you are best at.

It was a TKO after surviving the initial onslaught of Terrell who pretty much disappeared after that - Evan took his soul.

 

[pankrat]

Evan being brutally honest here...
He passed not long after this interview:

Can you recall what interivew was that?

 

[Paynebringer]

I f*king loved that dude, great unearthing of this thread...

 

[Dorkman]

Given what he had available to him for resources he was quite good. Never really the best of his era despite winning a belt. But still very solid top level guy. His submission of Homer Moore at the time was particularly impressive.

 

[pankrat]

Given what he had available to him for resources he was quite good. Never really the best of his era despite winning a belt. But still very solid top level guy. His submission of Homer Moore at the time was particularly impressive.

He also did incredibly good in the grappling focused Pancrase in Japan for the training he had

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

not very good at all, honestly. his grappling was good for the time but pretty basic by today’s standards. watched tanner/baroni recently and it looked like something you’d see on worldstar, not professional combat.

 

[Luthien]

I f*king loved that dude, great unearthing of this thread...