Evan Tanner came back from a two year sabbatical (read as: drinking binge) to fight top-ten middle weight Yushin Okami. It didn't go well for Tanner who was knocked out from a knee in the second round. Now though he has grown a mountain man beard (not Al Gore style) and is fighting against Kendall Grove in the main event during The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale . Tanner gave a recent interview to sherdog.com about the upcoming fight.

The most interesting portion was when Tanner stated his belief that the loser will most likely be out of the UFC making the fight extremely important. It is easy to understand why he believes this (more on this in the fight preview). Hopefully this doesn't apply to Evan due to him recovering from a dark period in his life. If Tanner loses it would be nice to see the UFC give him one more fight to try and turn things around. Besides how can you not like a guy who in explaining where he went for two years said, "I really liked my beer." ~ Evan Tanner