Tank Abbott the all time greatest UFC fighter?

[Shimora]

Ok, Ok I'm sure a small percentage of you will not agree with me but hear me out.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship was an elite No Holds Barred fighting event, attracting world class martial artists with years of training and combat experience.
For the first time we saw international level athletes from karate, kickboxing, judo, jiu jitsu, wrestling, boxing, safta, tkd and more pitted against each other to determine the Ultimate fighter.

The only way you stood a chance in the Octagon was if you were a highly trained athlete and martial artist right? Well yes that is normally what one would assume I agree.
That all changed with the event known as UFC6. Enter a man who did not train like an athlete. Enter a man with a beer belly and a disrespectful attitude. Enter David L Abbott, a university graduate from California also known as "Tank".

Abbott looked more like a guy you would see in a bar than a martial artist. He bravely declared that he had no respect for martial artists and said "You put me in there with Steven Seagal or Van Damme and within 5 minutes I will make them my bitch". Brave words for a man with no MA training wouldnt you say? There's no way this out of shape redneck will defeat the worlds greatest martial artists is there?

Abbott's first challenge was a daunting one. John Matua, a 400lb Samoan expert in the ancient Hawaiian art of bone breaking. This man was much bigger than Abbott and was a skilled Martial Artist. As I'm sure you all witnessed, Abbott destroyed Matua within seconds. Knocking him out and sending him into convulsions. This was one of the UFC's worst moments. Luckily Matua lived but he would never be the same again. The legend of Tank had begun.

Tanks next victim was man monster Paul the Polar Bear Varelans a 300+ lb. dynamo who had nearly destroyed his opponent in his first fight. Tank crushed Varleans and had to be dragged off his beat down torso by BJM. Varealans is a master of trap fighting. That's two martial artists Abbott had destroyed. Now he faced Oleg Taktarof in the final. Surely the sambo & jiu jitsu champion from Russia would easily defeat Abbott. After all he was a highly conditioned athlete that was familiar with training at high altitude in the Russian Mountains. On the other hand Abbott was out of shape and had already had two fights that night. Combined with the extremely high altitude that Abbott was not acclimatized to surely Oleg would win within seconds.
Well these two guys went to war, Abbott nearly KO'ing Oleg with bombs but somehow Oleg hung in there. The fight continued with Abbott clearly dominating but Oleg just took the punishment and refused to tap. Abbott showed some cool street savvy by escaping from a tight chokehold that Oleg had applied. Abbott smiled in his face when he escaped.
Unfortunately that night Abbott defeated himself. A very exhausted Abbott giving his neck to Oleg and losing by a Choke. At the end of the fight Abbott walked away while Oleg lay semi comatose receiving oxygen from trained paramedics. As they loaded Oleg into the ambulance on the way to the hospital one of the paramedics was heard to say. "This guy looks like he's been in a car accident".
Not a bad effort from Abbott against such experienced warriors is it?

In the UFC crowd in Puerto Rica, Abbott was involved in a fight with Alan Goes. Goes clearly got more than he bargained for when he mouthed off to Abbott. Goes was getting killed until the 6 security guys dragged Abbott off him. This was one of the UFC's worst moments

Abbott showed his stuff again in the Ultimate Ultimate 2 where he was up against a tough U.S Marine Tae Kwon Do champion that also trained in BJJ. This man was Cal Wosham.
Wosham had nearly KO'd Varelans in UFC6 and defeated karate champ Zane Frazier in UFC9 but looked like a bum against Abbott. Abbott humiliated Wosham by nearly throwing him out of the Octagon. Wosham tapped when he saw the whites of Abbott's eyes. He has never been the same fighter since.

Abbott then came up against tough Karate champion Steve Nelmark. Nelmark was an alternate that stepped in for Ken Shamrock who clearly did not want any thing to do with Tank. Shamrock got one of his convenient broken hands again.
Lucky for Shamrock he did because Abbott destroyed Nelmark. Nelmark crumpled to the ground like a broken rag doll. It looked as though he had a broken neck. Notch up yet another top martial artist for Tank. This was one of the UFC's worst moments. Today friends of Nelmark say he is a mere shadow of his former self. Will he ever regain the confidence that Tank stole with just one blow of his fist?

In the final Abbott was up against the champion Don Frye. Frye was a pro boxer with excellent Judo and wrestling skills. He had beaten guys bigger and stronger than Tank in the past. Nobody gave Abbott a chance. Nobody but Abbott himself that was. As the fight began Tank knocked Frye onto his butt with a heavy punch. Frye was notably shaken but continued fighting. In the slug fest that followed Abbott clearly dominated. Fryes face turned black and blue and he looked like he was about to go down. Suddenly Abbott over extended and slip over. In desperation Frye clamored around to Abbotts back. Looking through the slit of his one open eye Frye applied a choke to Abbott. Abbott tapped out but every body there that night knew who really one. After the fight Frye described Tank as an animal and was obviously in awe of Abbotts abilities as a fighter. Frye did all but hand the belt over to Abbott the way he spoke about him.
It was obvious that Tank was the moral winner of that fight. The people know who won and Abbott is the real peoples champion.

Tank continued to kick a$$ in the UFC with a great victory in Japan. I thank Buddha that Abbott didnt fight Sak in the final. If Abbott had gotten his hands on Sak he would have ended Saks MMA career before it had really begun. After all Tank is a little bit bigger than Royler Gracie LOL. We all saw what happened to Sak when Igor V fought him. Imagine what a really hard puncher like Abbott would do to him.

Abbott's finest hour was at UFC17. He had been offered as a sacrifice to the UFC's new hero Hugo Duarte. Duarte was being groomed as the UFC's greatest Brazilian since Royce Gracie. Many of you will know Duarte as the guy that gave Rickson his toughest fight in Gracie In Action 2. In fact many people say Duarte was beating Rickson until Ricksons brothers jumped in. Duarte is often descibed as the Rickson Gracie of Lutre Livre so that is an indication of his skill level. In his fight with Abbott he attempted a submission on Abbott but failed, as Abbott spun around he started pounding the back of Duartes skull practically driving Duarte through the floor of the Octagon. Abbott knocked out the world's greatest Lutre Livre practitioner. I think its fair to say that it just as easily could have been Rickson Gracie in the octagon that night. Abbott still would have won. This moment is truly one of the most inspirational things I have ever witnessed. I put it up there with Rocky 3
and Revenge of the Ninja as my all time most inspirational events. Whenever I dont feel like training I just think of Tank overcoming the odds that night. It helps make me push myself that little bit further. I'm getting choked up just writing this. I will have to finish up soon.

In summary, Tank is truly an inspiration to us all. An average man off the street stepping into the Octagon and showing us that we can achieve anything if we want to.

Im hoping to get an email address for Tank Abbott and emailing him from all the guys at Mousels. Telling him what he means to us. I'm sure I'll be speaking for the majority of members here.














[Edited by Shimora on 11-14-2000 at 04:25 AM]

[NHB Spice]

I'm sure Tank had some MA training. But I would like to know what his "pitfighting" was made of at that time. Some wrestling and boxing, I would guess. He showed us one thing, that strength is indeed important in combat, not as useless as we thought after UFC 1-4. Anyway, cred to Royce, for giving us the first big surprise.

[Shimora]

Pitfighting was a style created by the UFC to make him sound better.
He had only done a bit of High school wrestling. He couldnt even punch properly but he had such power that it didnt matter.
If Tank had been in UFC1 none of us would even remember Royce Gracies name by now. We would all be living hard and rarely training.

[Robbie]

Wasn't Tank also a boxer?

[Shimora]

Nup,
After a few UFC's he started training with a boxing coach but he was never a boxer.

[Mr. Miyagi]

Thanks Shimora. This looks very similar to the Tank story at FrankShamrock.com

[duchman]

oleg kicked his butt!

[Evilution]

Last time I checked Tank's win percentage was only about 50/50 in overall NHB. Don Frye was like 9-1 or 10-1 in the UFC. Check your math Shimora. But I do give Tank credit. He's a big bad dude with a serious set of balls on him.

BTW, Shimora you must have way too much free time to be writing love letters about Tank. I must have too much free time too because I read the thing.

[Mickey Finn]

“I put it up there with Rocky 3 and Revenge of the Ninja as my all time most inspirational events. Whenever I don’t feel like training I just think of Tank overcoming the odds that night. It helps make me push myself that little bit further. I'm getting choked up just writing this. I will have to finish up soon.” –Shimora


LMFAO!! That was priceless.

Just an observation here, but didn’t you start a thread a day or two ago lamenting what an overrated cur Vitor was/is? And didn’t Vitor make VERY short work of Tank?

[EJ]

Vitor's win over Tank was a fluke, and an early stoppage.

Why would WWF want Tank and not Vitor???

DUH!!!!

[GROUND CONTROL]

Tank is a tough dude. That is all. He did wrestle competitively by his own admission. He also did work with professional boxing instructors. According to Tito Tank did have some boxing experience. He also was an avid weight lifter. Tank did plenty of cardio early in his career. After his first UFC he said he would come back in even better shape for the next one. Later on he tried to rest on his laurels and was everyones whipping boy after the first 3 minutes of the fight were over.

Your assumption that Tank got up off the bar stool to fight is completely bogus. Tank even sought training in submissions. I believe he went to Joe Moriera's. He didn't last long becasue he was getting tapped by many of the students.

Also I heard Goes whipped Tank's ass in that fight. That is what Full Contact Fighter reported about the event. Since neither of us were there I guess we will never know.

Allthe guys you named Matua, Varlens, Nelmark, Worsham all suck. Have any of them ever won anything? As for Hugo being the next great Brazilian what a joke. And your statement that Hugo was getting the best of him until his brothers jumped in is a load of crap. Hugo Duarte in an interview in Grappling magazine stated that Rickson beat him twice. Once on the beach and once at Rickson's academy. Hugo wanted a rematch and challenged Rickson and he got beat down again.
Hugo said that Rickson is the real deal. People who think Rickson is hype are mistaken.

Rickson would put Tank to sleep. Much weaker grapplers have tapped the Tank, Don Frye and Oleg to be exact. Tank wouldn't stand a chance against Rickson.

And not that I like Ken Shamrock but he called out Tank on the UFC. He openly challenged him. He called Tank a fat piece of shit. He also said he was sick of him talking shit about him and his students. Tank did not fight Ken. Like the typical bully when he was confronted he backed down.

[keithws]

He made me realize no matter how hard i train, there will always be Tank's out there who can kick my ass. As a result, I'm very timid in public and mind my own business.

I'm proud to say that I haven't had my ass kicked in a long time and I owe that to one "Tank Abbot". The bottom line is, avoid mean fat people!

Sorry Mickey, but EJ has an excellent point. That stoppage was B.S. I knew tank was playin rope a dope but that ignorant Big John doesn't know the fight game. Tank knew V would gas and hurt himself (like the Sak fight). Only god knows what would have happened to Vitor if the fight lasted.

Fortunately, WCW was well aware of this!

Thanks Shim! It's about time the average bar fly gets his due...........

[GROUND CONTROL]

I really hope you guys are joking. Vitor practcally KO'ed Tank.

[assface]

http://wrestling.ign.com/news/24501.html

This is from IGN's wrestling section.

[Ryu (non-working password]

Sempai, Sempai...YOU could beat Tank though, right?
Could ya huh could ya?

Hai! Tank baka! tayorinai!

ja~ne!

................ Ugh..it's been...a very long day.

Ryu