(Damn, graphic design has come a long way in 11 years.)

On this day in MMA history 11 years ago, Zuffa LLC, the Las Vegas-based owners of the UFC took its newly-purchased traveling spectacle on the road for the first time to Atlantic City for UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk. The card featured five of the promotion’s present and future titleholders and was one of the better events in recent UFC history (at the time).

The main event of the night featured a middleweight (which would be later named the light-heavyweight division) championship bout between then-champ Tito Ortiz and the late Evan Tanner. Unfortunately for fans who were expecting a drag-out war between the pair, the fighter formerly known as “The Huntington Beach Badboy” had other plans. After a brief feeling out process, Ortiz scooped Tanner up, slamming the Team Quest fighter on his back and knocking him unconscious, adding a couple of stiff punches on the ground for good measure. The knockout would stand as the only one of Ortiz’s career.

(*Hello darkness, my old friend*…just to be clear, we’re referring to the darkness that accompanies being choked unconscious, not Jay Silva.)

To say that Kendall Grove has seen some ups and downs in his MMA career since winning the third season of The Ultimate Fighter would be an understatement. After defeating Ed Herman by ultra close unanimous decision to earn the coveted glass plaque, Grove would tack up two more submission wins over Chris Price and Alan Belcher. It seemed as if the lanky middleweight had the world in the palm of his hand, destined to follow Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans as the new breed of MMA stars to make their name off the show.

And then it all fell apart.

Grove would drop his next two via form of KO to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, and though he would follow up the pair of losses with victories over Evan Tanner (R.I.P.) and Jason Day, we would never see Grove rise above the rank of gatekeeper in his UFC run. He would go 2-4 in his next six, and would be ousted from the UFC after dropping a UD to Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 in Boetsch’s middleweight debut.

After scoring a quick submission win and evening the score with Joe Riggs, Grove out grappled Japanese sensation Ikuhisa Minowa at a Pro Elite event last month that we here at CP gave an official score of “meh.” Would last night’s SCC 4 card house “Da Spyda’s” first three fight win streak since 2007?

(Photo via the Justin Levens Remembrance Album on CombatLifestyle.com / Props to Deadspin‘s brilliant “Dead Wrestler of the Week” feature for the inspiration.)

By Ben Goldstein

All murder-suicides are shocking. Not all of them are entirely surprising.

On December 17th, 2008, UFC/WEC veteran Justin Levens and his wife Sara McLean-Levens were found dead inside their condominium in Laguna Niguel, California, both from gunshot wounds. Initial evidence suggested that Justin was the shooter. “It was a chest wound that penetrated her heart and killed her, and his was to the head,” said O. C. Sheriff Coroner’s Office spokesman Jim Amormino.

Amormino confirmed that painkillers and anti-depressants were discovered in the Levens’s home, along with the handgun Justin allegedly used to end their lives. Police had visited Justin and Sara at least twice in the previous month, once to investigate a possible drug overdose.

At the time of his death, Justin Levens was 28 years old and hadn’t won an MMA match in over two years. He’d gone 0-5 in 2007 — an agonizing year in which his close friend and IFL teammate Jeremy Williams committed suicide, also by shooting himself — and was dealt a six-month suspension by the California State Athletic Commission in July 2008 when a pre-fight drug test came back off-the-charts for the painkiller Oxymorphone. For the last five months of his life, Levens was unable to earn a living as a fighter, and fell deeper into a spiral of depression and prescription drug use.

Justin didn’t leave a suicide note. There were no signs of a struggle. He and Sara had already been dead for four days when their bodies were discovered.

(You can make fun of your opponent’s voice, and you can trash his fighting style. But mock a man’s sideburns, and you’re asking for the worst beating of your life.)

Start sharpening your razors, folks: We’re just eight days away from the official start of Movember! To help get you in the moustache-growing spirit, we’ve put together a photo gallery of our favorite facial hair arrangements in MMA history, which you can check out after the jump.

It really doesn’t seem like it’s been three years since the news of former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner’s sudden and tragic passing while out on a solo camping excursion to the desert west of Palo Verde, California sent shockwaves through the MMA community.

Tanner, who was open about his fights with alcohol abuse and his personal demons is said to have called his manager, John Hayner to let him know that his dirt bike had run out of gas a few miles from his camp and that his trip was going well besides the mishap. When he failed to answer calls from friends the next day, police were dispatched and after a brief aerial search, located Tanner’s camp and his remains a few miles away from his abandoned motorcycle.

Hayner told us at the time that the troubled 37-year-old had turned his life around thanks to a move to Oceanside and the rebirth of his career in the UFC where he recently re-signed. Tanner was hoping that the desert trip, which he planned for months and did hours of research for, would leave him feeling rejuvenated and ready to build on the mistakes he made in his last bout — a hard-fought split-decision loss to Kendall Grove at the TUF 7 finale that June.

“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com. Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”

(RIP Evan Tanner.)

Well, it wasn’t the most MMA history-steeped day, but there were a few noteworthy events that took place on this day in MMA.

The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale went down 3 years ago.

Evan Tanner Post Fight Interview
Tags: Evan Tanner Post Fight Interview

Why it Matters:

The event marked the final fight of former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner before his untimely death in the Paolo Verde, California desert. In spite of a close split-decision loss to Kendall Grove on the card, Tanner would give perhaps his last and most harrowing interview that provided an eerie foreboding soundbite that fans will forever make wonder if it was in reference to his career or his troubled life. “I’m feeling off, flat, can’t move. Maybe it’s…you know…Maybe my day is done.”

The event also saw the first TUF winner with no professional fighting experience crowned. Amir Sadollah, who has since racked up a respectable 5-2 record in the Octagon defeated the more seasoned former Arizona State wrestling standout CB Dollaway by first round submission.

One of the night’s winners, Diego Sanchez, would make an ill-fated decision he may now regret in retrospective. Following his win over Luigi Florvanti, Diego announced that he would be dropping to light weight to take a run at a title in the lighter class. After racking up a pair of wins over Joe Stevenson and CLay Guida, “The Nightmare,” as he was known back then, lost via decisive fifth-round TKO stoppage to then-lightweight champion BJ Penn at UFC 107. After a one-year stint as a lightweight, the TUF 1 middleweight winner decided to move back up to welterweight where he has since compiled a 2-1 record with a loss to John Hathaway and a pair of wins over Martin Kampmann and Paulo Thiago.

(Let me guess — ‘27 Dresses‘ was on TBS again.)

We’re just moments away from the official start of Memorial Day weekend, a sacred American tradition in which people across the country drink beer at backyard barbecues in honor of the brave men and women who have given their lives defending this country. While you’re giving it up for the military, please take some time to consider those who have passed on in the UFC. And don’t forget to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night for our liveblog of UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill…

EVAN TANNER

A one-time middleweight champion of the UFC, Evan Tanner struggled with addiction and financial problems during the later part of his career. Tanner got sober in 2008, but died just a few months later during a fateful adventure in the Southern California desert. And though he didn’t always treat himself kindly, Evan left behind a legion of fans and friends who revered him for his generosity and positive attitude — much like TapouT founder Charles “Mask” Lewis, who also happened to be fond of the word ‘Believe.’

LOGAN STANTON AND NATASHA WICKS

(Video courtesy of YouTube/00Alistair00)

If you haven’t heard the news, Anderson Silva has a new documentary called, “Like Water,” which set for release later this month at the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan. The name of the film is taken from a famous Bruce Lee quote as an homage to the world’s most famous martial artist who was a huge influence to The Spider’s MMA career.

The synopsis of the movie is after the jump.

(VidProps: YouTube/OnceIWasAChampion)

If you’re looking for an excuse to get a little bit misty-eyed this morning, you should definitely check out the above trailer for the forthcoming documentary about the late Evan Tanner. Titled “Once I Was a Champion,” the movie – produced at least in part by Tapout Films, according to the trailer – is reportedly being submitted for review by film festivals this month, where hopefully it’ll get some widespread play. If there’s one dude from MMA who deserves to have a film dedicated to his life, it’s probably Tanner. The former UFC middleweight champion certainly had his fair share of adventures (and perhaps personalities) which helped shape a quirky public persona, prior to his untimely death in the fall of 2008.

The trailer is legitimately pretty stirring and it seems like the full documentary itself is going to be pretty awesome. There are a slew of MMA luminaries involved, sharing their mostly positive remembrances of Tanner, while giving a nod to the troubled fighter’s “natural frailty.” Then you get to Chael Sonnen’s brief appearance at about the two minute mark and you think producers must have taken these comments out of context, not even Sonnen is this big of a dick. Then you watch the expanded video of Sonnen’s comments and you realize, nope, he really is a dick. See Sonnen’s performance and a few more fighters talking about Tanner after the jump.

("When you put your focus on one thing, you tend not to focus on the journey. Once you get there, it’s not going to be as big of a deal as you thought it was going to be.")

This Saturday, Rich Franklin will step into the Octagon for the 18th time to face Forrest Griffin in the co-headlining feature of UFC 126. During his 12-year career, Ace has experienced everything from championship glory to bitter defeat, and now stands as one of the sport’s most revered statesmen. “I think that what people will remember me for is that I’m a tough competitor who’s put on entertaining fights for the fans all these years," Franklin tells CagePotato. "And I’m happy with that kind of legacy.”

Rich was generous enough to give us some phone-time recently, and instead of asking him about his gameplan for Forrest, we discussed Franklin’s career as a whole, from the moment he decided to pursue MMA as a full-time job, to the fight that changed his life, to every other notable moment that helped forge the fighter he is today. Let’s begin…

The Early Days, 1993-1999
Rich Franklin: “I started training in traditional martial arts in 1993, then I saw the first couple UFCs and started doing some jiu-jitsu. I was training at a Royce Gracie chapter here in Cincinnati, and the guy who was leading my class was a blue belt. By today’s standards, if the best you had in your area was a blue belt, you’d be way behind the times, but in 1994 it was a big deal to have that kind of a resource. So I was doing jiu-jitsu, working with kickboxing coaches, and of course I’d been watching the UFC, learning off instructional tapes and all those kinds of things.

I started fighting at these little local amateur shows out in Richmond, Indiana, and clearly at that point in time, I was just light-years ahead of the competition that was showing up at the event. The promoter told me, ‘These are amateur events, I don’t really have anybody for you to fight.’ But there was a gentleman there who said, ‘You know what, I run a pro show, and I’ll pay you to fight." And he offered me 200 bucks. I was like, ‘Wow, I can make money fighting? This is great. I’m gonna make 200 bucks." I was bankin’.

RICH FRANKLIN (5-0) vs. AARON BRINK (7-4) — Franklin’s first regional title fight
IFC: Warriors Challenge 11, 1/13/01
Result: No contest due to accidental injury, after Brink’s leg slipped through the cage.

Addiction can make the toughest S.O.B. as powerless as this guy. While many MMA fighters have had their lives and careers derailed by drugs and alcohol, some were strong enough to find treatment and pull their lives out of the tailspin. Here’s our tribute to five of them…

LYLE BEERBOHM

Drug of choice: methamphetamines
Rock bottom moment: Wandering around the streets looking for a place to sleep after he had burned his bridges with everybody in his life. When he landed in the Washington State Penitentiary for 18 months for drug-related felonies after six years of shooting meth, nobody in his family came to visit him.
Recovery: While in the joint, Beerbohm began watching The Ultimate Fighter and became inspired to fight for a living; he’d already had to physically defend himself in prison a few times. "Fancy Pants" joined an MMA gym the day he got out, and won his first amateur fight eight days later. Beerbohm is currently 16-0 as a pro, and will take on Pat Healy in the main event of Strikeforce Challengers 14 next month.

COURT McGEE

Drug of choice: Alcohol, cocaine, heroin, meth, etc.
Rock bottom moment: McGee began abusing drugs after falling in with the wrong crowd after high school, and was once pronounced dead following a heroin overdose. In 2006, McGee had managed to stay sober for five months. In order to test his willpower, he took a trip to Las Vegas and decided to order just one drink. He woke up four days later in Iowa, not wearing any pants.
Recovery: McGee has been sober since April 16, 2006, two weeks after the Vegas/Iowa incident. He began training in MMA and rebuilding relationships with his family, which helped restore order to his life. "Crusher" came out of nowhere to win TUF 11 last June, and submitted Ryan Jensen in his follow-up fight at UFC 121. 

From MMAFightGirls

Joe Rogan has a new tattoo (well a few months old) which took over 5 sessions to complete, but it’s pretty amazing. Aaron Della Vedova from Guru Tattoo is the artist who did all of this amazing work. Apparently the sleeve tattoo depicts Joe’s DMT (Spirit Molecule) trip where he hallucinated and saw an Alien Thai Buddha made out of energy telling him not to give into astonishment. If you look at the molecule in the center of the tattoo it’s the DMT, Dimethyltryptamine, molecule.

Don’t do it, Joe! DO NOT GIVE IN TO ASTONISHMENT!!!

I can’t imagine a bigger hippie move than tattooing your own psychedelic vision on your arm. He’s going to run out of body space if he keeps taking up real estate like this. What if he has another, even crazier trip the next time he goes DMT’ing, and one of those machine elves is like “I would love it if you tattooed our little adventure on your left arm, that would really make me happy.” Because he’s basically screwed at that point.

In other Roganews…

(Photo courtesy of Spike)

Spike.com has posted the last blog entries from Evan Tanner before his death in the southern California desert two weeks ago. If nothing else, the sentiments expressed in his last entry should effectively put to rest any suicide rumors, such as those put forth by the always-idiotic War Machine. The night before Tanner leaves on his journey into the desert, he seems anything but suicidal:

It’s Tuesday night. Tomorrow I go out into the desert. It has taken over a month to get all the gear together. The preparation for this adventure took far longer than I had expected. I’ve never done this before, so I took my time reading books, studying the land, and researching gear. A few weeks of solitude in the deep desert, and then back to civilization, and back to training.

Clearly, that’s a man who planned on coming back. The MMA world remains saddened that he didn’t.

As a reminder, a memorial service for Tanner is planned for this Saturday, Sept. 27 at 2 pm in the Amarillo Civic Center in Amarillo, Texas, for those of you who might be in the area and are interested in paying your respects. When they hold your memorial at a civic center, you know you’ve had an impact on people.

(Don’t stop believing. Photo courtesy of Fighters.com.)

— Evan Tanner’s memorial will be held at 2 p.m. on September 27th at the Civic Center (401 South Buchanan Street) in Amarillo, Texas. Tonight’s Ultimate Fight Night broadcast will be dedicated to Tanner, and an Evan Tanner tribute show will be airing soon on Spike.

— Even though the ink on Houston Alexander’s new five-fight contract extension hasn’t even dried yet, Dana White admits that if the Assassin loses against Eric Schafer tonight, he’ll need to leave the UFC for a while to rack up some wins in other promotions.

— Roger Huerta’s loss to Kenny Florian last month was very hard on him emotionally, and he’s desperate for a rematch. In an interview with Fighters Only Magazine, he also seemed to imply that he’ll be leaving Greg Jackson’s team: “I would like to go back to the way I used to train, with the people I used to train with. Those guys were like brothers to me, not just trainers.”

— TUF 7 finalist C.B. Dollaway will reportedly return to the Octagon at UFC 92 (December 27th, Las Vegas) against middleweight veteran Jorge Rivera. Dollaway is officially 1-1 in the UFC at this point, after being submitted by Amir Sadollah via armbar at the TUF 7 finale in June, then submitting Jesse Taylor via Peruvian neck tie at “Silva vs. Irvin” in July.

— Speaking of fight bookings, Mike Swick and Jonathan Goulet have agreed to fight each other at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale on December 13th. Both men have won their last two fights in the UFC.

— Round 5′s new Sean Sherk collectible figure doesn’t really look like Sean Sherk. But the Wandy and Spider figures are definitely worthy of being displayed in your cubicle.

In this interview done after Rashad Evans’s knockout of Chuck Liddell at UFC 88, trainer/strategist Greg Jackson discusses what he told Evans between rounds 1 and 2, Mike Winklejohn and Kieth Jardine’s contributions to the gameplan, and Nate Marquardt’s victory over Martin Kampmann. Props to Sherdog via Fans of Team Jackson’s.

Courtesy of MMAMania and MAR Clothing, here’s a video of Josh Koscheck interviewing Diego Sanchez and Chris Leben in a car while in Las Vegas for the taping of the Ultimate Fighter 1 reunion — which will air in segments during Saturday’s TUF 1 marathon on SpikeTV, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. The guys discuss their upcoming fights, a possible rubber match between Diego and Josh, Thiago Alves’s mysterious growth spurt, and how Chris Leben wants a rematch with Anderson Silva more than anything.

After the jump: Must-see interview footage of Evan Tanner explaining why he fights and his humanist worldview, from Potent: The Movie, via Bloody Elbow.

(Shannon Gugerty finishes fights. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

— Without an opponent due to Thiago Silva’s recent back injury, Lyoto Machida has been officially removed from UFC 89′s lineup; an undercard bout between Shane Carwin and Neil Wain will now be bumped up to the pay-per-view broadcast. As one rumor goes, Machida could potentially face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in November or December.

— Patrick Cote is tired of the American media disrespecting him by discussing who Anderson Silva should face after the Spider inevitably kicks the crap out of the Canadian challenger at UFC 90. You might not believe this, but Cote said he’s “ready to shock the world.” Wow…could we have been wrong about this fight all along?

— Melvin Guillard has been forced to drop out of his UFC 90 bout with Spencer Fisher for undisclosed reasons. Replacing him will be Shannon Gugerty (11-2), the City Boxing product who made his UFC debut at “Silva vs. Irvin” in July with a first-round choke-out of Dale Hartt.

— The UFC may have found its next light-heavyweight gatekeeper, reportedly signing Italian UWC/Cage Rage vet Ivan Serati (10-2) to a multi-fight deal; he’s expected to make his first Octagon appearance before the end of the year. Serati has won his last four matches, and started his career with five straight victories by stoppage (all in under a minute) before losing to Vitor Belfort via TKO at a Cage Rage event in April ’07.

— UFC.com just published a feature about Evan Tanner‘s greatest UFC moments. Read and reflect.

Friends and associates of deceased UFC fighter Evan Tanner have set up a tribute site at EvanTanner.net where fans can post comments and share stories. His manager, John Hayner, encourages people who want to do something in remembrance of him to do so “by doing something unexpectedly nice for someone who is in need.”

Over at Fightlinker they’ve posted an account of a time when Tanner himself did just that. They also spent the day reposting all their old Tanner stories, an exercise meant to highlight the good and the bad about him rather than whitewashing his troubles and his missteps. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s worth a read.

Judging by the outpouring of sadness and support on the tribute site and in our comments section today, it’s safe to say that Tanner made a lasting impact on a lot of people, in no small part because of his vulnerability and generosity, even at his lowest points.

Driving Force Sports, owned by Evan Tanner’s manager, John Hayner, has issued this statement on Tanner’s death:

San Clemente, CA—September 8, 2008—The death of UFC fighter Evan Tanner, of Oceanside, California, has left the Driving Force Sports family heartbroken tonight.

News that the body of a man found in the desert of the Palo Verde Valley is that of Evan rippled through the fight community late Monday afternoon.

Lt. George Moreno of the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department has reported that Evan set out treasure hunting on Wednesday, September 3rd, asking friends to call for help if he didn’t return right away. Lt. Moreno says friends called the Sheriff’s Office on Friday, and search and rescue teams looked for him throughout the weekend in temperatures up to 114 degrees. Lt. Moreno says the U.S. Marines used a helicopter to search by air this morning, finally spotting a body two miles from the campground where Evan’s belongings were found earlier. While a coroner has yet to confirm the body is Evan’s, the owner at the management agency Driving Force Sports in San Clemente says people close to Evan visually identified his body at the scene.

“Evan was a dear friend to us and an important part of the DFS family,” says Driving Force Sports owner John Hayner. “He was so much more than a fighter. He was an individual we appreciated and cared a lot about. He marched to a drum only he could hear, and he was happy with that—so were we and so were his fans. He worked so hard to get fans more involved in the industry and be a part of his team. He was the kind of guy who kept on trying every day to improve…not just in fighting but in his life as a whole.”

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Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner has been found dead in the Palo Verde mountain area of the southern California desert. The news was confirmed with Tanner’s manager, John Hayner, who said he learned just an hour ago that the body found was indeed Tanner. He was thirty-seven years old.

“He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn’t having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life,” Hayner told CagePotato.com.

Hayner said that Tanner had gone into the desert on a motorcycle expedition and had run out of gas. Tanner was attempting to walk out of the desert, Hayner said, but apparently didn’t realize how far away from civilization he was and died of exposure in the triple-digit heat. Tanner’s empty campsite was spotted Sunday, and an aerial search located his body earlier this afternoon.

A post written by Tanner on his Spike TV blog told of his planning for the trip, and emphasized his desire to bring only essentials in his escape to the solitude of the desert:

I’ve been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I’ve been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I’m going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.

Hayner told of a man who “marched to a beat only he could hear,” but maintained a positive outlook on life.

“Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn’t have enough food to eat at times. I’d call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months,” Hayner said. “He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life.”

(Just one girl? Must have been a slow week for Chuck.)

- Chuck Liddell makes his case for a title shot after UFC 88. (MMA Weekly)

- Trying to make sense out of Elite XC’s crazy week. (MMA Rated Radio)

- Chris Horodecki-Dan Lauzon officially on for Affliction: Day of Reckoning (Sherdog)

- Evan Tanner is not a big fan of MMA, as this half-assed UFC 87 breakdown reveals. (Spike.com)

- Dana White and Anderson Silva nominated for “Top 49 Men of 2008″ (AskMen.com)

- How MMA saved JoJo Thompson’s life. (AZCentral.com)

- False blood work prompts fighter and trainer suspensions. (MMA Opinion)

- The most marketable names in sports. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Frat boy movie review of “Death Race.” (Screen Junkies)

- A harrowing tale of the days before internet porn, and how Kate Moss almost ruined everything. (Holy Taco)

(Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly)

From his Spike.com blog:

It was a long walk back to the dressing room after the fight. The doctor was there waiting on me, telling me I had to go to the hospital to get a CAT scan and stitches, letting me know they were giving me a medical suspension of 45 days. I was in no mood for that, and I know I was rude about it. I’ve known him for a while, but I don’t think I ever got his name. If he happens to read this, I would like to offer him my sincerest apology for my disrespectful behavior.

I was pissed off about the fight, f**king sad, f**king raging, on edge, all of it heavy with me, trying to maintain, trying not to explode. Camera men in my face, corner men, doctors, security, paramedics, friends, journalists, too many bodies crowding me, too many hands pulling me too many ways. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, standing there afraid of the man that would come out if I lost control…

Losing sucks. It’s been pretty tough the last couple of days. I’ve been keeping to myself. I haven’t felt like talking with anyone. I haven’t seen anything about the fight. I know I looked really bad. I don’t need to see it, or hear about it to know that. I’ve been having some serious health problems for a while now. They’ve caused me some problems in my daily life and have seriously affected my training. I obviously haven’t been the same guy in the ring.

I’m going to be taking a little time off to see a doctor. If we can’t get this health issue figured out, I’m done, I’m retiring. I don’t want to step back into the Octagon unless I’m 100%, and I can give the fans the type of fight they deserve to see.

There’s only one thing that can bring a man like Evan Tanner out of a funk this deep: A cross-country motorcycle trip.

All fighters made weight yesterday for the “Ultimate Fighter” Finale on Saturday night. If you thought weigh-ins were just a boring photo-op where guys stand around on a scale in their underwear, then you obviously haven’t seen a weigh-in hosted by Joe Rogan. In the above video you can hear Rogan cranking up the enthusiasm by screaming every word he says, despite the fact that he is already holding a microphone.

For a look at the really awkward staredown between Evan Tanner and Kendall Grove, skip to the end. And no, by awkward I don’t just mean that Tanner has a huge beard during it, though he does.

CB Dollaway and Amir Sadollah talk about tonight’s fight and their road to the finals after the jump.

CagePotato.com Interviews Evan Tanner – Watch more free videos

CagePotato.com got a chance to catch up with both “Ultimate Fighter” season one winner Diego Sanchez and former UFC middleweight champ Evan Tanner as they prepare for their respective bouts on the “Ultimate Fighter Finale” this Saturday night. Check out the above clip to hear Evan Tanner discuss his hiatus from MMA, the pretty boys in the sport, and what will become of that awesome beard of his.

Diego Sanchez is after the jump.

(Da Spyder)

Two years ago Kendall Grove was on top of the world. He came through season three of “The Ultimate Fighter” and beat out Ed Herman in a climactic bout to win the finale and a UFC contract. Now Grove finds himself back on another “Ultimate Fighter Finale” card, but in a much different situation. Coming off two straight knockout losses, he’s fighting to prove he belongs in the UFC, as is his opponent, Evan Tanner.

In this exclusive Cage Potato interview, Grove opened up about what it means to fight for your job, and how he plans to pull himself out of the lowest point of his career and get back in the win column in a fight neither man can afford to lose.

CagePotato.com: Hey, Kendall. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. What have you been doing in training for this fight to prepare for Evan Tanner?

Kendall Grove: I moved back to Hawaii. I moved back to Maui, but I’ve been in Hilo working with BJ Penn. I’m just getting ready for a fight where anything can happen. Whatever happens, happens. I know he’s going to want to take me down so I’ve been working with some big wrestlers to get ready for that. I’m just ready for war.

Do you expect him to come in with a sense of desperation in this fight?

Yeah, I do. I think we’re in the same position that way. We both need to win. This is a do-or-die fight for both of us.

Does that mean you’re assuming that the loser of this fight will be cut from the UFC?

I think so. Nobody likes a loser. That’s just how it is. I think that makes for a great fight. We’re both fighting for our jobs, you know? When you’re fighting for your job you have to go out there and give it everything you have. That’s all you can do.

What’s it like fighting as the main event for an Ultimate Fighter Finale, fighting for your job, when just two years ago you were fighting as a contestant and it seemed like a high point in your career?

Yeah, it’s weird. I evolved there as a fighter. That’s where I was born into the UFC. I had my ups and suffered some downs since then. But it’s not like I was fighting punks. I was fighting tough guys and I had some tough losses. That’s why I’m in the fight game, to fight tough guys.

It was very nice two years ago to be fighting in the finale and it’s cool to see those guys coming out of it now, but I’m a different person now than I was then.

How are you a different person now? How is the Kendall Grove of today different than the guy who won TUF?

(Someone’s excited by Rashad’s performance, and someone else is just very bored.)

The UFC has officially announced the previously-rumored Chuck Liddell-Rashad Evans bout for UFC 88 in Atlanta, Ga. on September 6. In an email blast sent out today they played up the fact that it will be the UFC’s first foray into Atlanta, which will no doubt be referred to as “Hot-lanta” by Mike Goldberg at least twice during the live broadcast of the event.

Call me crazy, but this main event sounds better and better. “The Iceman” may have slowed a step or two, but one thing he can still do is avoid a takedown and get right back up if you do manage to put him down.

If Evans can get Liddell to the mat and beat him there, it will be hard to ignore him in the light heavyweight picture. If he decides to stand and bang with Liddell and somehow manages to win that way, well, then either Liddell will have proven that he’s ready for retirement or the world as we know it will have changed forever. There’s a good chance the laws of gravity might even fail if that happens, so you might want to tie down some of your valuables, just in case.

- In other UFC news, Evan Tanner tells Thomas Gerbasi from UFC.com that he’s a poet or artist or something:

(Unfortunately, his fight with “Da Spyder” won’t be a pick-axe death-match.)

— Fedor Emelianenko recently carried the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg. There were no survivors.

— In a match where the loser may have to re-think their current career path, Kendall Grove and Evan Tanner have been booked to face each other at the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale on June 21st in Las Vegas. Grove, the middleweight winner from the third season of TUF, has dropped back-to-back contests against Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, while Tanner has lost three of his last four UFC matches, most recently a second-round KO loss to Yushin Okami at UFC 82. By the way, Tanner’s blog is back up, after being taken down temporarily in the wake of his gambling bender post.

— Kenny Florian will join Mike Goldberg in the broadcast booth at UFC 83 (April 19th, Montreal), filling in for Joe Rogan, who will be unable to attend due to previous obligations. We look forward to a new voice constantly correcting Goldberg, as well as less references to the “rape choke.”

— Kim Couture won her first MMA match on Saturday in Portland, Oregon, taking care of Jessica Cruz via ground-and-pound TKO at 1:43 of the third round. “It was a good fight for Kim because Cruz was scrappy,” Randy Couture said. “You don’t want your first fight to be too easy, but you don’t want to be over your head either. It was a perfect first fight.” Speaking of Randy, he addressed his future in a new interview with MMAMadness, saying “More than likely, I will end up signing with HDNet and Affliction. Realistically, that is the best option.”

— In his first match since his back exploded during Strikeforce at the Dome in February, Joe Riggs will headline Phoenix Fight: Street Justice on April 26 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, facing Mike Gates (5-3-1). Gates is a natural welterweight, and the match will be fought at a catchweight of 180 lbs.

— You know that skinny, nerdy looking new UFC ref who handled the Hamill/Boetsch and Maynard/Edgar fights at UFN 13? Well, apparently he has an open marriage.

(“The picture above was taken at the end of a week and a half of hardcore Blackjack.” Ed. note: [*shakes head*])

Cue Debbie Downer. Evan Tanner posted another journal entry today about how he’s already lost all the money he earned from UFC 82, and is now completely broke. Like, broke to the point of digging through dirty laundry and storage boxes to find enough change to buy a can of off-brand tuna, which is all he’s been consisting on for days. Hungry, and without money to buy food. Like, homeless person broke. And why? Because he spent a week and a half in a casino trying to win enough cash to pay his bills and other debts, and ended up losing what little he actually had. And also? He’d do it all over again if he could.

The subtext here is that Evan Tanner has replaced the delusions and denials of an alcohol addiction for the delusions and denials of a gambling addiction, but I’m not sure if he’s made the connection yet. I’m tempted to just copy+paste his entire heartbreaking/infuriating story, but here’s the meat of it:

For those of you who don’t know, when a fighter competes in the UFC, the purse is usually broken into two equal parts. There is a guaranteed purse the fighter receives just for showing up, and then there is the bonus purse, the other half, the fighter receives if he wins the fight. I knew that if I won the fight, I would be able to get everyone paid back, pay off the invoices I owed for the Team Tanner gear, pay my web designer, and have enough left over to get me to my next fight. Well, as we all know, the fight didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I only got the guaranteed purse, minus the medicals and other deductions. Considering the amount of money I owed, this didn’t really leave me much money to work with.

What was most important to me, more important than my own comfort, was paying back the people that had helped me out, and paying off my obligations. It is nothing more than a man should do.

But then it hit me, the thought that I could take what I had left down to the casino, and that maybe, just maybe I would get lucky, and make enough money to pay the last of my bills. That’s what I did. I took my money down to the casino……And I did get lucky, lucky enough to think I was going to get it done. I played hard. I don’t do anything halfway. I put my time in. I was so deep into it that I lost reference. I went at is for a week and a half, staying up all night, playing blackjack for 24 hours straight sometimes, forgetting to eat, not wanting to sleep…

In the end, I lost not only what I had won, but the little bit I had started out with as well. So I spent a week and a half gambling, staying up all night, not eating, dealing with all of the emotional ups and down of winning and losing, and I don’t have much to show for it, except that now I’m broke, I’m feeling really worn out, I’m a little depressed, and my sleep scedule is backwards.

Now you may ask if I regret it, if I would do it differently if I could, if I would take it back. NOT A CHANCE!!!!! … I went for it. I put it all on the line. I always will. I knew what the consequences would be if I failed, and I was willing to accept them. So any of you reading who might be feeling a twinge of sympathy, don’t. I made my decisions, and I accept the consequences. I’m no victim. And to those who are thinking about preaching at me, don’t bother. I won’t hear you. I haven’t accomplished anything in this life worth remembering by playing it safe. That’s boring to me anyway.

Great accomplishment only comes with great risk. I’ll accept the crippling, gut wrenching disappointment of risking all, and failing, but only by putting my whole heart and soul, my whole being into something, will I have the chance to walk among the stars. Those who risk nothing, those who live their lives in fear, will never have that chance. Failure is not a sin. It’s being too afraid to even try, that is a sin.

…which I guess is a noble attitude, if we were talking about anything other than gambling in Vegas. Failure, according to my definition, is putting up your tuna money against the turn of a card, and for an addict, success means avoiding risky behavior altogether. Evan will undoubtedly relapse unless he gets into a program, with a sponsor, somewhere far away from his current situation. We hope he realizes that those who are “preaching” at him only want to save his life.

(Evan Tanner, eating what appear to be testicles.)

While you were watching Cro Cop beat up a helpless Japanese boy…

— Evan Tanner announced that he’ll be returning to the Octagon this summer, but hasn’t revealed the date or his opponent yet. Tanner was most recently knocked out by Yushin Okami at UFC 82, but then defeated the urge to drink that came immediately afterward.

— Pancrase/PRIDE vet Kazuo “Grabaka Hitman” Misaki signed a two-fight deal with the San Jose-based Strikeforce organization; his first fight is expected to happen this summer. Since he’ll be fighting as a middleweight, Misaki could potentially face Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, or Joe Riggs. Misaki’s last two fights ended in a guillotine choke victory over Shooto champ Siyar Bahadurzada at Sengoku 1 (3/5/08), and a soccer-kick KO victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama at Yarennoka! (12/31/07) that was later ruled a no contest.

— Tito Ortiz sent Takanori Gomi a bunch of garbage in honor of his victory at Sengoku 1. Also, Rumina Sato just became a father.

— Dan Severn won his 106th match on March 9th, against Colin Robinson. JarryPark has an audio interview with the living legend about his “Kiss My Ass” retirement tour, YAMMA Pit Fighting, and his MMA legacy.

— Seven participating fighters in DREAM’s upcoming middleweight grand prix were announced on Saturday, including Kazushi Sakuraba, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Ikuhisa “The Manboob Hunter” Minowa. Kiyoshi Tamura and Denis Kang are on the event poster, so they’ll likely be fighting as well. The first round of the DREAM middleweight tourney goes down April 29th at the Saitama Super Arena.

(I like my ‘chino enemas with extra foam.)

For those of you unaware, the UFC had an event on Saturday – UFC 82. We’ve given you results & commentary, payouts, 7/11 encounters, Chuck-Heads, and more. And to cap off our thoroughly kick-ass coverage of it all, here are the traditional Monday-after suspensions.

The Ohio Athletic Commission has revealed that only four of the fighters from the event have been slapped with medical suspensions. Each of the fighters who got the on-hold ruling lost via KO or TKO, although no broken bones or lacerations were reported. Since, Yushin Okami has been said to have broken his hand while KOing Evan Tanner and Josh Koscheck possibly might have broken his as well while dealing Dustin Hazelett his TKO and subsequent medical suspension.

Evan Tanner pulled a 60-day suspension, while O’Brien, Hazelett and Sakara all got 30-day suspensions. Overall, pretty tame suspensions for a major MMA event.

However, the best suspension announcement was Luke Cummo’s caffeine overload suspension. Fightlinker “broke” the story early today that Luke Cummo had received a three-month suspension for having “extremely elevated caffeine levels beyond anything the commission had ever seen before.”

“Normally we don’t pay that much attention to the level of caffeine in a fighter’s blood,” said OAC commissioner Warren Petty. “But Luke Cummo’s readings were off the chart. At first we thought there must be a mistake with the test, but follow ups showed that our original findings were accurate. This guy must have been tripping balls in the Octagon.”

Oh, you had us until tripping balls, although I wouldn’t put it past the made-up OAC member, Warren Petty, to say something like that. The story went on to say 3-liter coffee enemas were to blame, but luckily MMA Weekly was johnny-on-the-spot and squashed this one – not that anyone was buying it after “tripping balls”. However, OAC executive director Bernie Profato wasn’t too happy about the hoax story and had this to say about the matter:

“I’ll be contacting the state’s Attorney General office (on Tuesday) to see what options we have in this type of matter because this is absolutely not true.”

I’m sure Zuffa will be filing suit soon as well.

Josh Koscheck vs. Dustin Hazelett, the best fight of the undercard. Awesome exchanges in the beginning, explosive finish at the end.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O’Brien. Feel free to skip past the entire first round.

More fights after the jump…