Mark Tahiliani

Mark was born in a tough suburb of New York where he quickly learned that survival on the streets of America's largest city meant learning how to take care of himself. As the child of a bus driver, life was never easy and Mark Tahiliani the boy was quickly forced to become a man. Growing up in a household with three siblings, he soon learned that in a family where money, food and attention were hard to come by, he would have to fight to get what what he wanted out of life.

When he reached school age, he struggled at times and rarely had a good role model to look up to. Since nobody in his family had a college education, meaningful assistance with school work was limited and his grades began to suffer. With time, he grew increasingly frustrated with academics. While he may not have known it at the time, academics would do little to prevent his rise to success. By age nine, he started to get involved with sports and after school programs designed to help at-risk youths. It was this early exposure to the world of sports that would eventually set the stage for him to rise above the social and economic challenges that were making life difficult for his entire family.

Between the ages of nine and twelve, Mark tried his hand in a variety of different sports ranging from football and basketball to track and field. As he began to develop his athletic talent, he started to take an interest in a friend who had studied mixed martial arts and worked out at a local gym. His friend was getting deeper into the sport and eventually participated in his first competitive boxing match. In an incredible display of precision power and self-discipline, he stunned the crowd by knocking out his opponent by the middle of the first round.

Wanting to follow in the footsteps of his older friend, Mark began to study Judo and take Karate lessons at a local YMCA. Within a year, it was clear that he had found his calling. He made short work of his opponents in several city and regional competitions and won several awards for his technique and striking ability. That was when he made the decision to spend time training overseas to sharpen his skills. To fund his trip, he took a night job stocking the shelves at a local warehouse. Every penny he earned went directly into a box that he set aside for his MMA training. By the time he reached his seventeenth birthday, he was off to southeast Asia to continue his training with some of the best instructors in the world.

Several years of dedicated MMA training can be credited with the class of fighter Mr. Tahiliani has become. Hard work and dedication allowed him to rise above a troubled household and evolve into the elite mixed martial artist he is today. His impressive lifetime record of 26-1-0 has allowed him to travel the world and compete in a wide variety of MMA competitions. He is respected not only as a powerful striker but is known for his submission skills as well. Over the years, he has managed to eliminate opponents with impressive standing knock-outs and arm bar submissions that have humbled more experienced fighters. His goal is to move up a weight class and fight in the 185 pound range within the year. When asked about where he thought his career was headed from here, he stated that ultimately, he would like to see himself get an opportunity on a worldwide stage to fight in the UFC. If his past success is any indication of what can be expected in the future, Mark Tahiliani will be a force to be reckoned with in mixed martial arts for quite some time!