User:Weinish/sandbox

Dan Caldwell (born May 27, 1971) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and entertainer. Often referred to by his nickname "Punkass", Caldwell is a co-founder of TapouT, a clothing and sports apparel line focused on Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). TapouT has gone on to become a multi-million-dollar brand.

Early Years Caldwell was born in San Bernardino, California, and attended both Cajon and Redlands High School. While in junior high school he started his own DJ business, which he sold to He took a number of business electives during high school which was the only formal business education he ever had.

About a year after high school he took a job as a high school security officer within the county, and later went on to become a police officer. He began training in the martial arts as a teenager, but soon picked up Brazilian Ju Jitsu after watching the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). His first teacher was Royce Gracie. He helped train a number of police officers he worked with. He met Charles Lewis, Jr., aka, "Mask", who was also working as a high school security guard in the San Bernardino.

Early Career Caldwell and Lewis formed the apparel company TapouT after recognizing there was no unifying brand in the MMA industry. Most practitioners of martial arts would tend to wear t-shirts of whichever school they trained out. TapouT was created to be a unifying symbol for fans of what was then referred to as No Holds Barred (NHB) fighting, which became popularized by the UFC. They sold t-shirts and other apparel at a variety of martial events throughout the Southern California and Southeast regions.

In 2001 they formed a business relationship with Zuffa, the company owned by Frank Fertitta III and Lorezno Fertitta, which had purchased the UFC.