Evan Tanner Has Passed On

Former UFC Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner‘s (32-8) body was discovered Monday in the Sonoran Desert, between Los Angeles and Phoenix, by a helicopter pilot from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

Tanner was 37-years old.

A search for Tanner began Friday when friends became concerned about Tanner’s solo camping trip in the desert.

“The idea going into the desert came to me soon after I moved to Oceanside,” said Tanner at his SpikeTV blog 16 August.  ”It was motivated by my friend Sara’s talk of treasure hunting and lost gold, and my own insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration.  I began to imagine what might be found in the deep reaches of the untracked desert. It became an obsession of sorts.

“‘Treasure’ doesn’t necessarily refer to something material.”

Tanner returned to the Octagon in 2008 after a two-year absence, but suffered losses to “Spyder” Kendall Grove (9-5) in June and Fighters.com’s sixth-ranked middleweight “Thunder” Yushin Okami (22-4) in March.

Tanner won the UFC middleweight title in a first-round TKO over “Soul Assassin” David Terrell (6-2) in February 2005.