Once I Was a Champion Page #4

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a little pickup.

He said he didn't have

a place to stay.

And he bounced

around a couple people's houses,

and then he said he was gonna stay

here, so I think we put a camper

out in back of the gym.

He stayed at my house

for a few weeks,

but he just really was not comfortable

staying at somebody else's.

He felt like a burden and

just... just could not relax.

Kept to himself.

And he was reading

all the time.

I'd be like,

"dude, what are you reading?"

"Moby Dick. "

He had this book club

that he was in that sent

these leather-bound,

kind of gold-trimmed books

to him,

you know, every month.

And he was reading

all the classics.

I mean, that's all he did.

He'd train and go

to his room and read.

And it wasn't

like he was a big problem,

but he just didn't feel comfortable

in being in somebody else's space.

Just thought I would point

to the piece of real estate

that used to be occupied

by Evan Tanner.

There's actually a trailer

in the back now.

Now this is not the trailer

Evan stayed in.

Just coincidentally

there's a unit.

Now with this trailer in mind,

that's only a couple steps down

of what Evan was staying in.

Evan's did have walls on it and some

type of a couch or a carpeted floor,

but, you know, it wasn't...

it wasn't

what you would... you would

picture a professional athlete

to be staying in,

let's put it that way.

And he stayed there

for quite a while.

I can't remember how long,

but I'd be surprised if it

wasn't at least three months

that that's

what he called home.

When I ended up going

to train at team quest,

he was... I think

he just got an apartment.

They were making fun of him,

the guys there,

because, before that, he lived

in a... in a van or something.

They called him...

in a sort of van in the back,

and they called him the camel

'cause he didn't need nothing,

no water, no nothing.

He was just kind of a,

you know, tough guy,

a loner-type guy, and he just

slept... slept in the van.

I said, you know,

"f*** that, dude.

I ain't sleeping

in no van. "

I slept in the gym.

We got into it one time,

training.

You know, we started going... it

turned into, like, a real fight.

Evan and Baroni

were sparring with each other,

and I could... you have a sense

of the energy

when there's guys sparring

around you.

And all of a sudden, I felt

this big step up in the energy.

You could hear the thuds

and the thwacks getting louder.

And it caused me to stop and, you

know, say, "hey, we're sparring.

You guys cut it out. "

'Cause they were... it was

escalating, one tit for tat.

And then sure enough, you know, Evan

listened, and he backed back down.

Well, Phil didn't.

And Phil caught him with a good

body shot and doubled Evan over.

And, you know, it kind

of culminated in a little bit

of a, you know, a ruckus that Phil

had kind of cheap-shotted him,

in Evan's opinion.

But I think that that was

something that came up again

because Evan and Phil

fought each other.

And to be honest, at the time, I was

really confident I would beat him,

so I was like, "okay, yeah, I'll

take this fight. Free money. "

I wasn't sure he would.

When I saw him at the hotel, I was

definitely trying to mean-mug him

and intimidate him a little bit,

but, you know, he's a tough guy,

and he's not gonna be intimidated by

anybody, so it didn't really work.

What... whatever.

That was my M.O. At the time.

But, you know, I was confident

going into the fight

that I was definitely...

definitely gonna smash him.

And, you know, it didn't work

out, but wanted a rematch.

I felt

like I definitely beat him.

I thought it was a bad stoppage

in the fight.

I thought it was... you know, I

thought I would definitely...

I would definitely beat him,

but he changed some things up.

That fight didn't go well

for me either.

I think there was maybe

a little false sense

of security there

on Phil's part.

Ultimately, I think

Evan had the last laugh.

You know, it just goes

to stand how good he was.

So it helps me not feel as bad

losing to him twice, you know.

Again, he had talked

about getting out of fighting,

and we're like, "dude, how else are

you gonna make "30 grand at a pop?

"You got a bunch

of financial issues.

"You're gonna lose your house.

"You know,

all this stuff going on.

Why wouldn't you take

another fight?"

There's no way Evan Tanner's

gonna win this fight.

There's no way Evan Tanner's

gonna win this fight.

Evan's awesome.

Evan's the big underdog.

When he fought David Terrell, he

had told me that he got the call

I think it was

two or three weeks' notice.

They called him

out of the blue.

He was in a bar,

and they offered him

a world championship fight,

and he was like, "yeah. "

- Anyways, I think

about 3:
00 that morning,

he calls me, and he tells me

he's lost in the woods.

So I tell him, I said, "well,

"you need to tell me,

you know, where you're at,

"or, you know, look around,

"see if you can see something

I can identify with,

I'll come get you. "

It's like he starts looking

around, and he goes,

"I see a library. "

I said, "where were you at?"

He tells me the name

of some bar.

Been walking for three hours.

You could literally take a rock and

throw it from that bar to that library.

You know, he was just walking

around in circles.

And it's cold.

So I pull into the library, and I

don't see him, so I honk my horn,

and out from this trash can

comes Evan

with his long...

you know, his hair,

and he's just got

this mad look on his face,

and so I end up putting him in

the car, and I take him home.

And he told me... he was like, "well,

I'm not gonna take the fight.

"I'm too, you know,

I goofed off too much.

There's no way

I can get in shape in time. "

I knew the ins and outs.

It was always hard to go,

"oh, did he do this?

Did he do that?"

And try to run

through a checklist

in my head of, was he prepared?

I kind of used

some of his words against him.

I said, you know,

"you always say

"that, you know,

believe in the power of one,

"believe in yourself, and,

regardless of the circumstances,

"if you believe

in something enough,

that, you know,

you can overcome it. "

'Cause I'd already bought

my tickets.

And so anyways, he thinks

about it, and, you know,

he's like,

"I'll think about it. "

Well, he's driving back to Oregon,

and he's calling me in hotel rooms,

says he's doing plyometrics and

push ups, trying to get in shape.

He thinks he's gonna take

this fight.

So Dave Terrell's a huge deal,

you know, Cesar Gracie

black belt, very highly touted,

considered to be a phenomenon in the

UFC in the middleweight division.

You know,

a guy who is undefeated.

There was a ton of hype

around him,

and he had knocked out Matt Lindland,

you know, who, at the time,

people perceived as one of the

top guys in that division.

Evan was probably a big underdog

in that fight.

Evan trained with me at my gym

at the evolution fight club.

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