JRE MMA Show #158 with Tank Abbott

Joe Rogan (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Alright, what's happening, baby? Good to see you.

David Abbott (0:14)

Likewise. It's been a long road for both of us.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

It has been a long road, man. I think I first met you in 1997

David Abbott (0:24)

I don't know the dates, but I remember meeting you officially, or in my memory, in New Orleans or somewhere around there, when I was sitting like in an auditorium, and you came in and sat down next to me. And at that time, people used to bother me all the time.

And so I was getting some fresh air and away from everyone. And you came up and sat down, and I was in my head. I was like, oh, no, I just want some peas.

And you rolled up, and you were totally cool. And I was like, oh, that guy's cool. We had a good session wrapping.

Joe Rogan (1:08)

Yeah, I remember first meeting. You know, when you talk about like the early days of the UFC, you are one of the real original legends of MMA.

I mean, you were one of the very first guys, and you were one of the very first guys. First of all, you were one of the very first guys, if not the first, to wear gloves, which I always thought was very smart. I know Vitor, I think, was one of the first. Who was the very first? Was it you?

David Abbott (1:36)

I don't know, but the people out there in the internet world say this Melton Bowen guy. He was a striker, boxer kind of guy in the early UFCs.

I did not get the idea from him at all. And who was the other guy with the one glove?

Joe Rogan (1:55)

Oh, yeah, he just died recently.

David Abbott (1:58)

Damn it.

Joe Rogan (1:58)

I forgot his name.

David Abbott (2:01)

It was back in the days with the Fred Eddish.

Joe Rogan (2:04)

Art Jimerson.

David Abbott (2:04)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (2:06)

Fred Eddish, that's right. Fred Eddish.

David Abbott (2:09)

And Harold Howard and all those guys cooking. And at the time, I had just gotten out of jail for beating up a cop's son, and they kind of, he used his position to his dad, make things go the way for the prosecution, even though he deserved to get beat up, and I obliged him. But I was going back and forth from a halfway house to work from the guy that got me into the show, and we stopped off at a Dick's Sporting Goods store, a big box sporting goods store like that. I don't think it was Dick's, but it was something like that. And they were bag gloves, and I put them on and I go, these would be perfect, but they had a post in them, so you couldn't really wrestle with them.

And I was like, hmm, I could take the post out. I ended up cutting it off, and it was just a clear plastic thick tube that you could hold on to. So I got rid of that, and I go, these are perfect. And I think they were Harbinger gloves.

And I knew, because I had been in hundreds of street fights, altercations, that's where I come from, although I've wrestled since I was eight years old. But I used to beat people up on the street.

Joe Rogan (3:43)

That deserved it.

David Abbott (3:44)

Yeah, absolutely. There's not one guy out there that didn't want to do the same thing to me. I was just better at it.

So I knew my hands would get hurt. And I'm like, you can't fight three times in one night. Without your hands getting busted up. So I cut those out, and I go, these are perfect. I can wrestle in them.

As I said, I had wrestled my whole life. And they were perfect.

Joe Rogan (4:15)

Did you have hand wraps on?

David Abbott (4:17)

No, no hand wraps.

Joe Rogan (4:18)

Just the gloves?

Yeah. Did you wrap your wrists or anything?

David Abbott (4:21)

No.

Joe Rogan (4:21)

Nothing? And what was the law back then? What were the rules, rather? What were the rules?

You were allowed to wear wrestling shoes. You were allowed to hit the nuts back then. And your first fights, you were allowed to pull hair, hit the nuts.

David Abbott (4:33)

You could do anything. There wasn't, until I came along.

And anyways, they, you just couldn't, I can't even tell you what you couldn't do, but that, you couldn't bite and you couldn't eye gouge. Those were the only two rules.