David Lee "Tank" Abbott (born April 26, 1965) is an American retired mixed martial arts fighter, professional wrestler, and author. He currently hosts his own podcast series titled "The Proving Ground with Tank Abbott." Abbott is perhaps best known for being an icon in the early stages of mixed martial arts and the UFC, but has also competed in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Strikeforce, EliteXC, and Cage Rage, challenging for the UFC heavyweight Championship once in 1997. His fighting style, which he developed brawling in the bars and streets of Huntington Beach, California, was described by his future manager Dave Thomas as "Pit Fighting". He also authored the three novels of the Befor There Were Rules trilogy, Bar Brawler, Street Warrior, and Cage Fighter.
Background Abbott was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. Abbott began practicing amateur wrestling when he was nine years old, and continued through high school where he also played football. He then continued wrestling in college at Cypress College, where he was a CCCAA All-American. He then attended California State University, Long Beach where he graduated with a degree in history. During this time he was trained in boxing by Noe Cruz who also trained world champion boxer Carlos Palomino at the Westminster Boxing Gym.
However, Abbott was mainly known for the many street fights that he had engaged in, rarely losing. While working at a liquor store to help pay for his college tuition, Abbott encountered a "smart-ass" customer. Abbott beat the customer severely, and the customer, who turned out to be the son of a detective, pressed charges for assault. Abbott was sentenced to six months in jail, the judge saying, "Mr. Abbott, you are a maniac. I'm surprised you haven't killed somebody."
Mixed martial arts career Abbott started his career in mixed martial arts when he applied to the UFC for its event UFC 6 in Casper, Wyoming.John McCarthy, Let's Get It On!: The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee He was introduced to the UFC management by his future manager Dave Thomas, who credited him as a veteran street fighter who lifted 600lbs in bench press and had knocked out four men in his last brawl. Upon this description, the management compared him to the character "Tank Murdock" from the 1978 Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way But Loose, which encouraged them to give David the nickname of "Tank Abbott" and bill him as a "pit fighter" with over 200 street fights.
According to Abbott, this wasn't the first time he applied to the UFC. Inspired by Kimo Leopoldo's participation in UFC 3, he had tried to enter the promotion as soon as September 1994, but the UFC management only allowed him to fight from UFC 6 onwards, after Royce Gracie had ceased fighting in UFC.Tank Abbott Interview Part 1 & 2, Onzuka.com Art Davie would later confirm the Gracie family used its input in the management to limit fighters with amateur wrestling backgrounds, like Abbott himself, from entering the first events.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (1995–1998) Abbott made his debut at UFC 6 in July 1995 as scheduled. He actively cultivated the tough character he had been given, firstly by giving a rude interview in which he derided martial arts and then by knocking out the Hawaiian Kapu Kuialua fighter John Matua, who weighed 400 lb, in the first 18 seconds of his opening fight.Snowden, Jonathan. MMA Encyclopedia, ECW Press, 2010 Abbott further solidified his reputation by mocking Matua's convulsions after the KO while the ring doctors rushed the cage. Abbott advanced to the next round and was pitted against a similarly heavier adversary, Paul Varelans. After returning to the cage in midst of strong cheers, Abbott knocked out Varelans by ground and pound and knee strikes, all while mockingly smiling at his opponent laying beneath him.
At the finals of the tournament, Abbott faced the Russian Oleg Taktarov in a fight that the announcers touted as a "skill vs. power" bout. Just as described, the match saw Abbott blocking Taktarov's artful grappling attempts and damaging him in turn with hard punches and uppercuts. With both men becoming increasingly tired due to their previous fights and the high altitude of the location, the action moved to Taktarov's guard, where Abbott avoided multiple submission attempts and punished him further. The fight was restarted standing, which would give Abbott the advantage, but by this point he was exhausted enough for a slightly better conditioned Taktarov to pull him down and lock a rear naked choke, thus winning the fight at the 17 minutes mark. Both men collapsed in exhaustion after the fight, and Taktarov had to be carried out of the cage. Although Abbott had failed at winning the tournament, referee John McCarthy considered him the next big star of the promotion after Royce Gracie.
Abbott returned the same year as part of the Ultimate Ultimate event, which saw runners-up and champions from the previous UFC tournaments gathered together. He first fought UFC 3 winner and ninjutsu practitioner Steve Jennum, whom he outweighed by 80lbs. Although Jennum proved capable of avoiding Tank's strikes, Abbott submitted him with an improvised neck crank. However, his next opponent was Dan Severn, UFC 5 champion and a much more decorated freestyle wrestler than Abbott. Tank initiated the action strong, but he was overpowered and eventually kept on all fours while Severn rained elbows and knees on him. After fifteen minutes of absorbing strikes, Abbott managed to free himself, but Severn kept dominance until the end of the fight, which gained him the judges's unanimous decision.
Abbott's next UFC appearance would be in September 1996, at UFC 11. Accompanied by a young Tito Ortiz and dragging a knee injury without adequate surgery, Tank entered the cage to fight professional boxer Sam Adkins, an affair he ended quickly in the first round by forearm choke against the cage wall. This tournament venture was cut short, however, by Scott Ferrozzo, a contender from Don Frye's entourage who was billed as a "pitfighter" like Abbott himself. Ferrozzo was also fresher, as he came to replace Jerry Bohlander, who was injured in the previous round. The two fought evenly in the clinch for minutes, with Tank coming closer to a stoppage by opening a cut in Scott's face, but Ferrozzo eventually gained the advantage with knees to the body and a heavy uppercut. At overtime, now with the crowd cheering for Ferrozzo, the latter controlled the action with knees and punches to win the judges decision. According to Abbott, Ferrozzo had to go to the hospital after the match, while he did not.
As the first time, Abbott was invited back to the next edition of Ultimate Ultimate at December 1996. His first opponent was Cal Worsham, a former U.S Marine whom Tank disposed of swiftly via wrestling and punching. A short brawl happened after the bout when Worsham suddenly tried to attack Abbott, as Abbott had kept hitting him while the referee stopped the bout. Abbott's next fight met an even more brutal ending, as his opponent, Steve Nelmark, fell against the fence upon being knocked out and got his neck folded in a dangerous position. Despite the incident, Tank remained calm, and he was later quoted as "If that man weren't in the octagon, I would have kicked him about five times in the face. And I have, and I've done it many times."
At the end of the event, Abbott met his final adversary in Don Frye himself, with the winner of the fight gaining a title shot against Dan Severn. Despite Frye being a superior wrestler like Severn, Abbott caught him with a hard left jab and dominated the match onwards with wild strikes, appearing as if he could win by KO at any moment. However, by capitalizing on a punch in which Abbott overestimated and slipped down, Frye managed to capture his back and lock a rear naked choke, winning the fight. Abbott claimed he made a mistake by letting Frye get his hooks in, as he would have been planning to use them to snap his ankles. For his part, Frye praised Abbott, going to say the match featured the hardest hits he received in his entire career.
Ultimate Ultimate 1996 was the last UFC tournament in which Abbott partook, as around the same time the UFC began switching away from the tournament format. Abbott's fortunes declined with the arrival of better trained mixed martial artists, who posed a much bigger challenge than the previously inconsistent opponents from the earlier UFC events. His debut in this new format was at UFC 13 in May 1997 against Vitor Belfort, whose fast-hitting boxing style had been criticized by Abbott while doing special commentary at UFC 12. Abbott scored an early takedown, but moved back to trade hits with Belfort standing; this proved to be an error, as Vitor immediately overwhelmed him with punches and dropped him to all fours. The Brazilian kept attacking Abbott until the match was stopped.
In October 1997, Abbott was contacted to fight in the Japanese Pride 1 event against Kimo Leopoldo, but he was unable to do so, having to be replaced by Dan Severn. Ironically, shortly after Abbott replaced Severn himself with four days notice in a title match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship against Maurice Smith at UFC 15, a circumstance he described as "literally falling off the barstool into the octagon." Trying hard to press the action, Tank shockingly dropped the kickboxing champion with an early shot, but Smith controlled him through his defensive guard and a Kimura attempt. The action was restarted standing, but by this point Abbott was exhausted and offered little resistance to Smith's low kicks, prompting the referee to stop the match.
Abbott bounced back from his losses with his performance at the first UFC show on Japanese soil, UFC Japan, where he was pitted against shoot-style wrestler Yoji Anjo. The American dominated the match with takedowns and right hands, avoiding submission attempts with short bursts of ground and pound every time they hit the mat, which eventually gained him the unanimous decision win. The event featured a tournament format, but Abbott forfeited due to a broken hand acquired while punching Anjo.
Back in the United States, at UFC 17, he followed with an impressive victory over renowned luta livre fighter Hugo Duarte, who was famous for his vale tudo fights against Rickson Gracie. Duarte had previously criticized Tank and his fighting skills, and he came close to proving himself right by almost locking a rear naked choke and an armbar in the first few seconds. However, Abbott blocked them successfully and captured Duarte's back, landing heavy punches from there, completely knocking the Brazilian out. At the same event, Tank was suspended by UFC for verbally fighting with Allan Goes, which according to Abbott happened because he had cheered for the opponent of Goes's teammate Wallid Ismail at UFC 12.
In October 1998, Tank visited Brazil next as part of UFC Brazil, facing another luta livre fighter, Pedro Rizzo, who came on a 5–0 record. The Brazilian proved to be a dangerous opponent when he stopped Abbott's early barrage with several hard rights, but Abbott answered with a counterpunch that opened a cut near Pedro's eye. Rizzo then adopted a more evasive approach, avoiding Tank's overhands and grinding him with low kicks and his own counterpunches, which Tank counteracted himself again by taking Rizzo down and besieging his guard. However, the match had drained Tank's energy, and Rizzo was able of dominating him with strikes from the bottom and more kick and punch combinations while standing. At the end, the Brazilian knocked Abbott out for the win, becoming the first opponent to do so. Abbott praised Rizzo after the match, although he claimed to believe the cage canvas had been greased to hinder the footing of wrestlers like him.
After his match with Rizzo, Abbott retired from MMA.
Return (2003–2013)