Archive for August, 2004

Tank Abbott

© Marc Wickert www.knucklepit.com

All photos copyright 2004 Zuffa LLC
Photography by Joshua Hedges

When the Rolling Stones first released their hit “Street Fighting Man” in 1968, there’s little chance they had David “Tank” Abbott in mind as the subject of their song – considering Tank would only have been three years old.  But today, when the thunderous tune barks through radio speakers, Tank is understandably the first person most MMA fans think of.

Easily the world’s most famous street fighter, Abbott has a pedigree background in American wrestling and boxing.  And although Tank has been absent from the Octagon since UFC 45:Revolution, he is ready to make a return to No-Holds-Barred (NHB) fighting, whatever and wherever the venue may be.

“I’ve been doing the staple boxing, wrestling, submission, weightlifting and condition training.  And drinking on the weekends.  On a relative scale of one to ten, my fitness is about a five.  But it will come back real quick.  And I’ve been doing some kicking, and obviously wising up against elbows and knees and that kinda stuff.  Just getting back to where I’m on an even keel.

“I get up about noon every day, but I stay up late as hell, and there’s a hundred million dollar lottery in our state, California, right now.  And I was lying in bed, wondering how I’d spend $100 million if I won.  So that kept me up all f**kin’ night.  I’d spend it on the usual: houses, booze and fights.  But that kept me up, and I woke up at 12, and I felt like, ‘Oh my God, I feel like I’ve been run over.’

“Actually, I worked out in the gym yesterday: punching and stuff, so I was kinda tired…not much sleep, you know – that rolls.  The lottery’s not drawn until tomorrow (28 Aug., 2004), so don’t count me out yet.

“I’ll be down in Australia in my own private jet.  I’ll have a friend, who’s like a sober interpreter, because I’ll be so drunk.  He’ll just be half drunk, so he’ll be going, ‘Ah, ga, ya…He said he’s really f**ked up right now.’”

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Geoff Thompson

© Marc Wickert

www.knucklepit.com

photos © Geoff Thompson

Ever wish you could be the best in the world at something? Ever wish you could win the lottery and make all your dreams come true? Ever wish upon a star? Geoff Thompson is like that: He spends most of his life dreaming. What separates Geoff from most of us is that he makes his dreams come true. And he doesn’t leave anything to chance. He works and works until his dreams become reality. To Thompson, life’s stumbling blocks are merely stepping stones that need to be overturned.

Geoff’s whole life has been a series of hurdles he’s erected for himself. And every day he raises their height. When Geoff wanted to feel safe on the street and decided to stop being bullied, he took up bouncing for ten years at some of Britain’s roughest nightclubs. He wanted to become an author and has now published over thirty books and thirty videos.

“If I only set realistic goals, I would not have achieved anything in my life. I pride myself on the fact that I set goals that others would consider completely unrealistic. In fact, if I had listened to many of the people around me, all my life, I would not have even set goals in the first place, because all of the things I aimed for seemed impossibly grand, even pretentious to them. And yet, it did not stop them from happening. It did not stop the whole universe from conspiring to make my little dreams into big realities,” says Thompson.

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