Remembering Tanner's biggest moments

A look back at the five biggest career moments for former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner, who was found dead Monday at the age of 37.

5. Defeated Heath Herring on Oct. 18, 1997, Amarillo, Texas to win the USWF heavyweight title: Tanner, who never had any intention of being a pro fighter, started his career six months earlier with the Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation, a group out of his home town of Amarillo. The promotion put on legitimate matches using a lot of rules and a promotional style taken from pro wrestling. There were no gloves, no closed fist punches and rope breaks on submissions. A Texas high school wrestling state champ, Tanner was convinced by friends to enter an eight-man heavyweight tournament, and he destroyed all three opponents and became the talk of the promotion. He had no intention of fighting again, but promoter Steve Nelson talked him into it, creating a world heavyweight championship if he could beat Herring, the promotion's other star. He weighed only about 190 pounds, but Tanner beat the much larger Herring in 6:19 when Herring submitted due to exhaustion.

4. Defeated Phil Baroni Nov. 21, 2003, Uncasville, Conn.: Now fighting in his natural middleweight class, Baroni, the better striker, pounded Tanner early, opening cuts on his eye, high on his forehead and his nose. Tanner appeared to be one punch away from being finished in the first two minutes of the fight. The match was stopped to check on his cuts, but he was allowed to continue. It became a different fight at that point. Baroni looked tired, Tanner took him down, got the mount, and started throwing vicious elbows to the head.

Ref Larry Landless asked Baroni if he wanted to quit. Baroni thought he was being asked if he wanted to continue, and screamed, "Yes!" and the match was stopped at 4:42 of the first round. The match was controversial, but Baroni was taking serious punishment and it's touch and go whether he could have lasted that final 18 seconds of the round.

The match was also famous because Baroni threw two punches at Landless after the match was stopped, neither of which connected. A rematch was held seven months later, after Baroni got off suspension, which Tanner won via unanimous decision.

3. Lost to Tito Ortiz Nov. 23, 2001, Atlantic City, N.J.: In the main event of the first UFC event promoted by Zuffa, Ortiz, the UFC's light heavyweight champion, defended against Tanner. At this point, Tanner had a 23-2 record and was still USWF heavyweight champion. Ortiz went into the cage with about a 20-pound weight advantage, threw Tanner down with a belly-to-belly suplex, and in landing, Ortiz's large head drove hard into Tanner's chin, knocking him out in just 29 seconds. Tanner had to be carried out on a stretcher and spent the night in the hospital.

2. Lost UFC middleweight title to Rich Franklin June 4, 2005, Atlantic City, N.J. in the match: The story of the match was two warriors refused to quit. Tanner couldn't get Franklin in the clinch, his most powerful position, or take him down, where he was a strong finisher with his elbows. Franklin picked Tanner apart standing early, then out of nowhere, Tanner decked Franklin late in the round and was going for submission after submission, but the round ended and Franklin survived.

The rest of the fight was Tanner surviving, as Franklin's superior stand-up turned Tanner's face into hamburger meat. Franklin opened one cut after another, and both of Tanner's eyes were swelling badly by late in the third round. Tanner survived on guts, almost made worse by Franklin's hands, which were battered from all the punches. It hurt Franklin so bad to punch that he couldn't put full power into his blows. Tanner suffered three cuts over his left eye. It looked like an open triangle, affecting his vision and the doctor stopped the bout at 3:25 of the fourth round.

1. Defeated David Terrell to win the UFC middleweight title Feb. 5, 2005, Las Vegas: The title was vacant when Murilo Bustamante, the champion, left after a pay dispute. Tanner, at this point 30-4, had scored two wins over Baroni and a quick submission over Robbie Lawler to earn his spot. Terrell got an immediate takedown and locked in a guillotine that looked to have Tanner finished, and Tanner later admitted he was almost out. But he popped his head out, and was on top, and Tanner's trademark aggressive ground and pound did the trick, with Terrell offering no defense on his back. Ref Herb Dean stopped it in 4:35.