There is no way I can tell you how this news saddens me. Evan Tanner was one of the very few people, MMA related or otherwise whom I knew I will never stop thinking about or caring about. He was one of the very few people in MMA who truly evoked emotion for who he was not what he did inside a cage or a ring.
Evan Tanner was the only person I know I will always care about even though I never met him, spoke to him, watched him live or contacted in any way or shape. Sometimes you end up letting the fear that the person who you like might end up being completely different from who you thought him to be, get the better of you and never make the move to at least talk to them once. I am less of a human being for having missed that opportunity.
I feel a little bit more alone in this world after losing him. A true warrior. A true poet. A truly simple, beautiful man.
R.I.P. Evan Tanner. Champion, amazing human being, friend. May you be in a place without boundaries.
It is a shame that in this society we’ve been taught to judge a man’s worth by what he owns instead of who he is. Everything is surface, and so few look beyond it. A man will sell his soul, he will lie, cheat and steal, for money. If he has it, he can buy respect. Wear the right clothes, drive the right car, have the right friends, that’s all that matters. Our lives are consumed in a selfish, self absorbed quest for possessions, the latest and the best in a never-ending cycle until the day we die. We forget what it means to be truly human. We forget the things that really matter. We lose the magic of what life should be.
I won’t live by rules that make no sense to me.
- Evan Tanner
“I will do nothing lightly. When I walk, I will walk heavily. When I fight, I will fight with conviction. When I speak, I will speak strongly. When I feel, I will feel everything. When I love, I will love with everything.”
-Evan Tanner
“There was a time when I was younger that I didn’t know any better than to be a liar, a cheater, and a thief. I have since learned to despise those things. I have had great friendships. I have had great loves. I have been a lover, I have been a son, a brother, and a friend. And I was once a world champion.”
-Evan Tanner
“Believe, in the power of one”
- Evan Tanner
http://www.spike.com/profile/Evan_Tanner
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=26028435
