Evan Tanner

Believe in yourself. Believe in your own potential for greatness. Believe that you can change the world. It is something that is within each of us.Believe in the Power of OneTeam Tanner shirt for summer 2008. Available for purchase at: www.evantanner.net/teamtannerCollege dropout, adventurer, seeker, traveler, ditch digger, dishwasher, cable tech, concrete worker, steel worker, salad prep, busboy, ski resort security, ski resort rental shop technician. I've worked in a slaughter house. I've been a landscaper. I've done drywall, tile, countertops, wood flooring, roofing. I have been a plumber, worked as a bottle collector at a bar, a bouncer, a doorman, a head of a security team. I have been a basket room clerk, a carpenter, a framer building beach houses, a truss builder. I've lived on a farm. I've lived in the city. I've earned money mowing lawns, selling on ebay, and fighting. A teacher, a trainer, and a coach sometimes. There was a time when I was younger that I didn't know any better than to be a liar, a cheater, and a thief. I have since learned to despise those things. I have had great friendships. I have had great loves. I have been a lover, I have been a son, a brother, and a friend. And I was once a world champion.The story of my fighting began ten years ago. On my travels, I passed though my hometown of Amarillo, Texas. There was a promoter there putting on shootfighting shows. I was out adventuring at the time, collecting stories that I would be able to tell my future children and grand children. I thought being in a shootfighting event would be a really interesting story, and it would be one more adventure under my belt. I didn't really have anything to prove, I was on a peaceful path. I just wanted the adventure and the story. I signed up for the next show. I planned on fighting just once. I had no desire to continue beyond that. Fighing was definitely no dream of mine. I didn't know anything about fighting, so I bought some Gracie Jiu Jitsu technique videos and began learning. My friend and I would sit there in the livingroom in front of the TV studying techniques. Then we would push the coffee table and the couch to the side and spar. That is how I first began to learn how to fight. I signed up for the heavyweight tournament that was being held at the next show. Although I only weighed about 190 pounds, I thought what better challenge than to fight the biggest, meanest, toughest guys in the area. I fought three times that first night. I won the tournament. I was satisfied. I was done. That was enough. I had the adventure, and I had my story. I was ready to go back to the path of peace, and move on to other adventures. That would have been the end of my fighting, but one day I got a call from the promoter. I was offered a shot at the heavyweight title belt. It was another chance at an interesting story I couldn't pass up.I've been fighting ever since. It's not who I am, it's not how I define myself. It's just something I do. There are many other things I could be, many other paths I could be walking, but fighting is what the fates put before me. There must be some ultimate purpose to it.Personal Website: www.evantanner.netTraining out of:ABSOLUTE MMAThe Man in the ArenaIt is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.Theodore Roosevelt, 1910Impossible"Impossible is just a big wordthrown around by smallmen who find it easier tolive in a world they havebeen given than to explorethe power they have tochange it. Impossible is nota fact; It is an opinion.Impossible is not adeclaration; It is a dare.Impossible is potential.Impossible is temporary.Impossible is nothing."Richard Bullock