Photo credit to Tanner Boser's Tapology
Tanner Boser “He’s from France. I’m Canadian. I’m the top Canadian heavyweight”
Tanner Boser takes on Ciryl Gane in a high stakes heavyweight bout this weekend. This is an intriguing fight for shaping up the heavyweight hierarchy in the Ultimate Fighting Championship but is also a fun one for hardcore Canadian MMA fans. Prior to signing with the UFC, Gane was TKO champion while Boser held the Unified MMA belt. The fight emanates from Sajik Arena in Busan, South Korea. The card goes Saturday, December 21st and the pugilistic proceedings kick off at 2:00 am EST.
UFC Busan
This is a hotly discussed fight among pundits and fans alike on the Canadian MMA scene. Boser said, “Well I mean he’s not Canadian. He’s from France. I’m Canadian. I’m the top Canadian heavyweight. But I get the angle of Unified champ vs TKO champ. I think it’s pretty cool.”
Boser thinks highly of his opponent and knows what he’s getting into once he steps into the cage. Tanner Boser stated, “I think he’s quite well rounded. I think he’s shown that. He’s got submission wins and he’s got some takedowns in his fights. But obviously, kickboxing is his strongest suit. Having that good professional kickboxing record before he went into MMA. He’s a good fighter. He’s long, he uses it well, and he’s good all-around but definitely a great striker.”
KB Bhullar has been a key part of this camp and has been the main guy Tanner has worked with ahead of the Gane fight, sparring-wise. KB, Graham Park, and Christian Larsen all have gold in Unified MMA. Boser’s gym Shaved Bears holds claim to a lot of significant hardware in the great fight north. Boser quipped, “It’s just more proof of what we already knew. We have the best guys around and most of the best fighters in Canada. Especially in terms of like you said the bigger guys, middleweight to heavyweight. Just having us all together in a room, we know how good we are.”
Tanner Boser has dabbled with security work in the past and continues to do that today. His old place of employment literally burned down but he soon found other bouncer gigs and has taught more seminars too. Boser said, “I trained a handful of people…I wasn’t training enough people to make enough money to just do that. I kind of got offered a job doing security gigs. These places don’t pay great. It’s nowhere near like Diamonds where I was working at before….Luckily right now I’m making a bit better money in fighting that I was before. UFC does pay ok but it’s the frequency of fights they’re giving me that’s awesome.”
Tanner Boser
Boser made a successful Octagon debut a couple of months ago by winning a unanimous decision against Daniel Spitz. Tanner Boser said, “The relief comes after the fight when you win. That’s your relief. I said it before, I knew Daniel Spitz was going to show up and fight.”
He’s looking to get in one more UFC victory before 2019 closes out but has an ideal schedule already tentatively mapped out for 2019. Boser stated, “I’d like to have four fights a year. If that’s realistic, I don’t know. I have to play everything by ear. This’ll be my fourth fight this year against Gane. Obviously just second in UFC but I fought for Unified and for M-1 earlier in the year. Four fights in a year is perfect. It’s a lot but I’ve got nothing else going on.”
It’s safe to say Boser very much seems to be largely digging his UFC journey so far. USADA has been a little invasive with Boser since signing with the promotion though.
Boser quipped, “Well that’s the second time they’ve tested me this camp. They’ve tested me four times total now. I don’t mind. I don’t care. Not on anything obviously. I worked the night before. I work till 3, I’ve got to drive home, and shower. I’m in bed at like 4:30 and I get a phone call at 7:30 that they’re at my door and that they need to come into my place and watch me piss. Yeah, it’s a huge fuckin piss off. Especially when I have in the app that I’m working at night.”
2020 Goals
Boser was able to travel a lot while fighting for ACB (now ACA) and now he’ll get to stamp Korea on the ol’ passport before the year ends. Tanner Boser said, “I don’t care where the fight is. A lot of people have kind of asked me if I’m excited to go to Korea. I’m not really excited to go anywhere. I want to go there, I want to fight, I want to get paid, and I want to go home….I’m sure it’s going to be cool. Going to like the experience when I’m there. I’m positive of that. I like experiencing other cultures.”
Also, Tanner Boser might be stepping into a different kind of arena to perform in the new year. Boser stated, “My friend Massive Damage runs Monster Pro Wrestling. He’s a good friend of mine. He had asked if I would like cameo in there in Bonnyville just because it’s my hometown. He just wanted me to be somebody’s bodyguard and just go have a fun night. I was down. Problem was it was on a Friday….Either way it was just like a little too close to my fight.”
