Once I Was a Champion Page #2

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of Evan's to...

he wanted to beat

coach Stewart, you know.

And to us, you know, as kids, that

was just like, "okay, whatever.

You know,

good luck with that. "

High school-level wrestler,

and you're talking

about a guy

who's an all-American.

I remember one time

where coach got the best of him,

which you would think

that's a natural thing,

you know,

the guy's experience level,

and I just remember

Evan being in tears.

You know, his goal was to

be an Olympic gold medalist.

When things didn't work out

that way through college,

and when he got a chance to

compete, you know, in the show here

that he went on to own, you know,

he was kind of a natural at it.

He had that wrestling background,

and, once he saw something,

he picked it up.

I met him here

in Amarillo, Texas.

He was running the show that he was

a champion of, called the USWF.

And it was

an open-handed striking company

with... which you can allow kicks

and knees,

and I ran into Evan Tanner

in 1996

after we had a couple of shows,

and I tried to talk him

into fighting for me,

and he was shy, he was even

turning red as a young man.

And I didn't think he was interested,

and a few months later, I got a call

from Evan Tanner, and he was fighting

for me at the beginning of 1997.

And, by the end of 1997, he became

the first USWF heavyweight champion

when we crowned

our first champion,

and he fought

heath herring that night.

There he is.

Down in round six of this

world championship match...

Heavyweight champion

of the world, Evan Tanner.

I was in a tournament, and he fought,

like, one fight later that night.

Probably one

of the best training partners

I had in mixed martial arts

for the next year.

There every day, on time, always learning,

always ready to go, always showed up.

You know, never an excuse.

Never a problem.

Always, no matter what.

He was doing what he had going on,

but, when he was gone, he was gone.

After USWF 16, I decided that I

didn't want to promote anymore,

and Evan was doing

some odd jobs...

laying cable

and doing some different things,

and I got a call from him,

and Evan asked,

"what do you think about me

promoting the USWF?"

So Steve ended up selling it

over to Evan.

Well, Evan, you know,

still wanted to compete,

but he was also intrigued

by the promoting

and thought it would be a good

way he could make a living.

When you're supposed to be getting ready

to fight the main event, you're out

making sure that everything's

going right in the crowd,

you could even be breaking up

a fight in the crowd,

you could... you're handling everything,

you're handling the police,

you're handling

the ticket sales.

Everything that goes on

is your responsibility.

He did everything.

He was so stubborn that he

wouldn't hire a matchmaker.

You know, he did pretty much

most of the sponsorships

with his fianc at the time.

I believe I was the one

constant thing in his life

that he could rely on that

wasn't changing day to day.

So I think he kind of leaned

on me a little bit

to be his wall, his support.

You know, I remember, you know, he was

fighting heavyweight at the time,

and Evan, you know,

I don't think

he ever walked around

or weighed over 205 pounds.

But he's fighting heavyweights.

You know, while guys are in the back

getting ready, you know, he's working.

When it was time to come out and fight,

well, it's time to come out and fight.

Drops what he does, goes

in there, fights, wins.

Afterwards, he's walking around

still in his trunks,

you know, no shirt on,

collecting money from vendors and,

you know, sponsors that came in.

Guy did it all.

If Evan Tanner wanted

to make a lot of money

and acquire a lot of material

things, Evan Tanner was smart.

He could have been a lawyer

or a doctor or do anything

he wanted to be...

a college Professor.

But Evan Tanner chose

to be a fighter.

Bas, you know Evan well?

Yeah. I... you know,

I was fighting

with him in Japan.

He was at Pancrase.

And that's where I met him.

He was actually the only guy who

out-drank me... Sorry.

And, after a party...

after a fight,

we all went celebrating, and we

came home at 7:
00 at night...

in the morning actually,

and we went to sleep.

9:
00 in the morning

we had to go to a special

press conference or something,

and, when I woke up, everybody was trashed,

but Evan was standing there with his beer.

He says,

"Bas, do you want one?"

I say, "okay,

you beat me right now. "

That story every time came up

we would meet each other.

And I remember saying to him, I

said, "you got to take it easy. "

I said, "you can be the UFC champion,

but it's not gonna happen overnight. "

He said,

"when can I go to Japan?"

I said, "well, we're gonna have

to find out.

Let me keep working on it. "

Japanese reporters, they

were coming to the USWF fights.

They saw Evan Tanner.

So I used my connection with the

reporters to talk to Pancrase.

And Pancrase,

for people who don't know that,

was the leading mixed martial

arts organization in Japan.

The rules

that they had in Japan

were kind of adapted

kind of for the Japanese guys,

with open-hand strikes,

so no gloves.

That was good

for the submissions.

They wanted you to wear shoes

and shin protection.

Their main strengths from the

Japanese has always been the ground.

And they're really

good with leg locks.

Having shoes, you know, shin protection,

takes the power away from the kicks.

Very good for their leg locks.

It was all adapted.

Well, finally Pancrase

gave us a call and said,

"we would like to have

Evan come over here

"and stay for three weeks,

and we'd like to enter him

in the Neo-blood tournament,"

which is a tournament they have for

new guys coming into Pancrase.

A lot of times,

the Japanese would bring guys in

that kind of had a kind of tough guy

reputation but just to break 'em.

I was a little worried

about his match

against I believe it was agi... his

real name is Yanagisawa Ryushi.

He was a real tough guy.

Fight!

First day, I told Evan, "we're

all gonna go into Yokohama

"and, you know,

go see a movie and hang out.

You want to come?"

He's like, "no, I'm just gonna

jump on a train and go. "

And I ain't kidding you, man.

This guy put on his backpack

and jumped on another train,

and we didn't see him anywhere.

And the next thing you

know, we're showing up

to training, and we're,

like, all freaked out.

And there he is.

At the Dojo, which is also

a very difficult place to find,

you know, training.

He ended up going all over

Japan in one week's time.

In certain aspects

of Evan's life,

I think that there was a tremendous

amount of fear of things,

but I think in certain aspects,

like being adventurous

in the world,

he had no fear whatsoever.

I just want to thank everyone.

I've really enjoyed

my stay here in Japan.

I feel very fortunate

that I got a chance

to come over here

and fight in Pancrase.

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