This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Fedor Emelianenko Turns 40

His prime years long since passed, he remains the measuring stick for all mixed martial arts heavyweights, past present and future. Fedor Emelianenko will celebrate his 40th birthday on Sept. 28.

The onetime Pride Fighting Championships titleholder was for years one of the central figures in the sport, as he compiled a ridiculous 27-0 record from April 6, 2001 until Nov. 7, 2009. Though Emelianenko still has never competed inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he holds wins over four former UFC champions -- Mark Coleman (twice), Kevin Randleman, Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia -- and three Olympic medalists: Satoshi Ishii, Matt Lindland and Naoya Ogawa. “The Last Emperor” has also beaten Brazilian great Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), four-time K-1 World Grand Prix winner Semmy Schilt and 2006 Pride open weight grand prix winner Mirko Filipovic.

Emelianenko has rattled off five consecutive victories since his technical knockout loss to Dan Henderson under the Strikeforce banner in 2011, the latest being a controversial majority decision over Fabio Maldonado at a Eurasia Fight Nights events on June 17.

Others in MMA celebrating a birthday during the month of September:

SEPT. 1

Tim Kennedy (37)
Mike Pierce (36)
Nick Catone (35)
D.J. Linderman (33)
Luis Henrique da Silva (27)
Carl Seumanutafa (27)

SEPT. 2

Steve Gable (40)
Jeff Curran (39)
Shamil Abdurakhimov (35)
Alessio Sakara (35)
Sean O’Connell (33)
Anthony Durnell (32)
Dragan Tesanovic (31)
Jamil Silveira da Conceicao (30)
Enrique Marin (30)
Cathal Pendred (29)
Alejandro Perez (27)

SEPT. 3

Hidehiko Yoshida (47)
Leo Sylvest (43)
Daniel Jolly (32)
Dominick Cruz (31)
Lorenz Larkin (30)

SEPT. 4

Bao Quach (37)
Kevin Lee (24)

SEPT. 5

Emmanuel Yarborough (1960-2015)
James Brasco (44)
Gray Maynard (37)
Jacob Volkmann (36)
Tim Hague (33)
Francis Ngannou (30)
Raquel Pennington (28)

SEPT. 6

Thales Leites (35)
Tarec Saffiedine (30)

SEPT. 7

Patrick Williams (35)
Alan Carlos (33)
Ian Loveland (33)
Pedro Munhoz (30)
Yancy Medeiros (29)
Larissa Pacheco (22)

SEPT. 8

Rubens Xavier (42)
Mike Thomas Brown (41)
Chris Tuchscherer (41)
Yasuhiro Urushitani (40)
Chris Dempsey (29)
Maryna Moroz (25)

SEPT. 9

Don Richards (42)
Roger Narvaez (33)
Harris Sarmiento (33)
Jose Aldo (30)
Bobby Green (30)
Kyung Ho Kang (29)

SEPT. 10

Masahiko Kimura (1917-1993)
Sanae Kikuta (45)
Mirko Filipovic (42)
Joe Doerksen (39)
Naoya Uematsu (38)

SEPT. 11

Eric Bedard (32)
Cody Gibson (29)

SEPT. 12

Yuki Sasaki (40)
James Irvin (38)
Ray Steinbeiss (37)
Stanislav Nedkov (35)
Mario Rinaldi (34)
Johny Hendricks (33)
Junior dos Santos (32)
Paul Kelly (32)
Dustin Neace (30)

SEPT. 13

Marcus Sursa (34)
Ronald LeBreton Jr. (31)

SEPT. 14

Antonio Silva (37)
Chris Lozano (34)
Alan Omer (28)

SEPT. 15

John Marsh (46)
Rick Hawn (37)
Fernando Gonzalez (33)
Jesse Gross (29)
Horacio Gutierrez (26)

SEPT. 16

Pablo Garza (33)
Brandon Halsey (30)

SEPT. 17

Michael Guymon (42)
Denis Kang (39)
Scott Jorgensen (34)
Sean Holden (32)
Hector Urbina (29)

SEPT. 18

Mike Pyle (41)
Abel Trujillo (33)
Felice Herrig (32)

SEPT. 19

Heather Clark (36)
Leandro Issa (33)
Matt Wiman (33)
Lewis Gonzalez (29)

SEPT. 20

Ryan Jensen (39)
Eric Schafer (39)
Quinn Mulhern (32)
Sarah Kaufman (31)

SEPT. 21

Josh Thomson (38)
Bianca Daimoni (30)

SEPT. 22

Bob Sapp (43)
Forrest Petz (41)
Takanori Gomi (38)
Fredy Serrano (37)
Shamar Bailey (34)
Bruno Menezes (31)
Chuck O’Neil (31)
Mike de la Torre (30)
Elias Silverio (30)
Corey Anderson (27)

SEPT. 23

Shane del Rosario (1983-2013)
Jason Lambert (39)
Makoto Maeda (39)
Maro Perak (34)
Joe Riggs (34)
Sotaro Yamada (33)

SEPT. 24

Brad Pickett (38)
Sara McMann (36)
Brian Stann (36)
Kris McCray (35)
Roxanne Modafferi (34)
Dan Charles (31)
Chris Horodecki (29)

SEPT. 25

Todd Gouwenberg (42)
Olavo Belo (37)
Rashad Evans (37)
Allan Weickert (35)
Phil Davis (32)
Jake O’Brien (32)
Jessica Andrade (25)

SEPT. 26

Shinobu Aoyama (43)
David Branch (35)
Roger Gracie (35)
Hugo Viana (34)
John Dodson (32)
Ross Pearson (32)
Santiago Ponzinibbio (30)
Dileno Lopes (29)
Tom Breese (25)

SEPT. 27

Shannon Ritch (46)
Sasa Mitrovic (31)
Josh Bacallao (28)
Islam Makhachev (25)

SEPT. 28

Fedor Emelianenko (40)
Jeremy Mahon (37)
Eduardo Felipe (36)
Justin Ledet (28)

SEPT. 29

James Te Huna (35)
Andre Galvao (34)
Che Mills (34)

SEPT. 30

Herb Dean (46)
Yves Edwards (40)
Latoya Walker (37)
Damacio Page (34)
Scott Holtzman (33)
Neal Ewing (31)