In one of the first profiles in a major publication of what’s now known as Mixed Martial Arts, Mark Kriegel writing for Esquire fixated on David ‘Tank’ Abbott, in an essay titled, “Gentlemen, Start Your Bleeding.” The sport was two-and-a-half years old.
“He has that capacity for stardom, a great talent, an American talent, accessible, exploitable, as cunning as it is crass, vulgar by purpose and predilection, a singular, superlative knack for shock value; in all, those gifts that quicken the blood and the breath of producers and promoters,” wrote Kriegel accurately, if a little breathlessly. “As Shakespeare would put it, he so offends to make offense a skill.”
23 years later, Tank still has it, as he showed during his debut appearance on Submission Radio (27:44).
Tank on Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal fighting for the BMF belt at UFC 244.
Oh, I think it’s pretty funny actually. I mean, neither one of those guys would qualify as a bad guy in my eyes. I mean, I could throw it out there, transplants and all, I’ll fight the winner of that fight [laughs]. Obviously their size and the whole makeup of it. Like I said, it’s just not something that even comes close to being something that I’d be interested in. I definitely would not think either one of those guys are the baddest whatever in the world. Far from it. … they can make me a burrito.
Tank on Conor McGregor.
There’s a reason why there’s weight classes, and that’s because you can hide behind them. I mean, the first guy I fought was over 400 pounds, and then I fought a guy that was 380 pounds. Either one of those guys would have stepped on McGregor and squashed him like a bug.
I’m not really into the lawn jockeys of the world fighting. You know, when I fought, it was who were the toughest guys around? And they got in there and fought, but you didn’t need to hide behind a weight class or anything like that. And so Conor – actually, Floyd Mayweather kind of actually put him on the map. But yeah, he’s done his thing, he’s made his money. I didn’t really have a thought about him or opinion, but I did see the punch that he did to the poor old guy and I wasn’t on board with that. All the other stuff, all his shenanigans is whatever, who cares? Boys being boys. But to actually… it was basically a sucker punch in my eyes to that old poor guy. I mean, what are you doing when that goes down? So, I can tell you just from an outsider looking in, he’s not somebody that I would be a fan of.
Tank on Tito Ortiz.
In my opinion I could go on for hours about him, but he is a liar, a cheat and a scumbag and a conman. He’s conned the whole world into really making people think that he’s a fighter. I was there at his first fight, he fought as an alternate in one of my shows, and before he went into the fight he was crying like a little baby, I don’t want to do this. And one of my training partners slapped him across the face and said, quit being a baby, you’re gonna go in there and just do a wrestling thing, go in there and take him down and hold on. And he listened too well because that’s all that Tito does, is he goes out there, takes you down and doesn’t do anything. He’s not really a person that has a warrior set of mind. Like I said, he’s a conman, a liar and thief. So as far as him being tough, he can act like he’s tough, but he’s the last guy you want on your side when things hit the fan.
Tank on potentially getting into the UFC Hall of Fame.
“It’s not on the top of my list. You know, it’s all politically motivated, and I don’t have anything that I want from anybody. Want to give it to me? Fine. I’m sure I’m more qualified than the clowns that are in it now. But you know Dana White, I don’t need or want anything from that man. He’s just made a whole thing of, he made a character out of himself. Because he’s not a fighter, he’s not anything else, so might as well mug on the camera. All these guys just want to be famous. That’s never been my cup of tea, but I guess there’s a need to be famous. So, Dana used his boxercise training partners, the Fertitta brothers, the billionaire boys, to use their money and create a role for himself. But that’s for people that care to be something. So, Dana White, if Dana wants to put me into the UFC, I’m not gonna kiss his ass to get there, he can just put me there on my merits. I put more people watching that show than I dare say anybody else. And then so as far as the UFC hall of fame or whatever, like I said, it’s political and I don’t care about it because I don’t need anything from anyone. I can do well on my own.
Tank on still being willing to scrap, even after nearly dying from liver transplant surgery.
There’s a few fighters that I like out there. Cheick Kongo and Rampage Jackson, they train in the same gym as I do, and it’s good to watch them fight and be around them. I got to be friendly with both of those guys.
I was just at the Cheick Kongo fight in San Jose a couple of weeks back and it got stopped by a thumb in the eye. Who knows if it was intentional or not, but it was a no-contest. There was a little skirmish after the fact, and I was trying to make my way into the cage but I couldn’t get over the railing.
Oh, hell yeah, I was going to throw down with Rampage and Cheick, but the barrier seemed to be too significant for me to get over at the time and I was kind of freaking my wife out, so I calmed down. But I was definitely on my way.
I was just gonna show them what a real thumb up looks like. The one you kind of deliver on the street, you know what I mean? But things were in my way I couldn’t get over. So, things happen for a reason once again. So, [Bader] lucked out.
