Tank Abbott

In December 2018, Abbott revealed that due to his lifestyle his liver had to be replaced. Despite suffering several strokes during the surgery, Abbott survived and the transplant operation was successful.

Abbott was expected to face fellow MMA veteran Dan Severn for the upstart UR Fight promotion on March 20, 2016. The contest was cancelled the day prior to the event as Abbott could not pass the required medical tests per the Arizona Fight Commission.

Abbott worked as a professional wrestler with World Championship Wrestling (WCW); initially he was brought in as an opponent for Goldberg, on the understanding he was a "legitimate" fighter—who could render any opponent unconscious with a single punch, which became his wrestling finisher, 'The Phantom Right'—and could boost Goldberg's reputation. This feud, however, never developed.

At King of the Cage: Fighting Legends, on Saturday, April 13, 2013, Abbott was defeated by longtime veteran Ruben "Warpath" Villareal by way of a 2nd round TKO. After the loss, his first sanctioned fight since 2009, Tank said that he was not sure if he would fight again but he had trained seriously for the first time in years, felt great, and had a lot of fun stepping back in the cage. He thanked Warpath and the two men shook hands. As he was leaving the cage Tank said that he was "starting to feel a little old".

In 2011 Abbott participated in an unsanctioned "backyard brawl" with Scott Ferrozzo, whom he previously fought at UFC 11. The match ended without a winner, but Abbott dominated almost its entirety by pinning Ferrozzo on the ground and punching him for fifteen minutes.

His next fight against former PRIDE veteran Mike Bourke on February 13, 2009 at The Selland Arena in Fresno, California—was a part of the Valentine's Eve Massacre Event. Abbott controversially knocked out Bourke with a punch that inadvertently landed in the back of Bourke's head, securing a victory for the first time in nearly four years.

In February 2008, he had a first-round knockout loss to Kimbo Slice at Elite XC's Street Certified event.

Abbott waged an unsuccessful UFC comeback in the mid-2000s, losing fights to Frank Mir, Kimo Leopoldo and Wesley "Cabbage" Correira and was released from the promotion. Following his release he defeated Cabbage by KO in a rematch in what is in fact the only time Cabbage, who is famous for his chin, has ever been knocked out. Abbott would lose several more matches in regional shows.

Mere days prior to the Souled Out pay-per-view in 2000, WCW head writer Vince Russo was given the responsibility of booking a match to crown a new WCW World Heavyweight Champion. This came at the news that both WCW Champion Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett, two of the company's top performers, were injured and could not participate at the event. To the dismay of company officials, Russo suggested having the mid-card Abbott win the Championship, but only to hold it briefly. The scenario would not take place, and Russo was consequently released from WCW while other bookers composed the Souled Out card, choosing Chris Benoit to win the belt. Abbott instead faced Jerry Flynn, a legitimate black belt in taekwondo and defeated him on the pay-per-view.

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 him 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.

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 in four days notice in a title match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship against Maurice Smith, 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 lock 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.

In 1997, Abbott appeared as a UFC fighter in the TV show Friends, defeating Jon Favreau's character, the millionaire Pete Becker, who was dating Monica at the time. He appeared as himself in the 2013 web series Black Dynamite Teaches a Hard Way!, where a Black Dynamite mannequin teaches him what to do in case of an earthquake.

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 its adequate surgery, Tank climbed the cage to fight professional boxer Sam Adkins in the first round, an affair he ended quickly 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 had got 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 Abbot, as Abbott had kept hitting him while the referee stopped the bout. Abbot'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."

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 Abbott had criticized while doing special commentary at UFC 12. Abbott scored an early takedown, but he 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.

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. 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 smiling openly to his opponent.

According to Abbott, this wasn't the first time he applied to 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. Art Davie would confirm the Gracie family certainly used its input in the management to limit fighters with amateur wrestling background, like Abbott himself, from entering the first events.

Abbott started his career in mixed martial arts when he applied to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for its event UFC 6 Clash of the Titans in Casper, Wyoming. He was promoted 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 Any Which Way you Can, which encouraged them to give David the nickname of "Tank Abbott" and bill him as a "pit fighter" with over 200 street fights.

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. He has described his fighting style, which he developed brawling in the bars and streets of Huntington Beach, California, as "Pit Fighting". Abbott was the first fighter to regularly wear what would be known as traditional MMA gloves in the UFC. He also authored a novel titled Bar Brawler.