This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Urijah Faber Celebrates No. 45

Brian KnappMay 07, 2024

As patriarch of the revolutionary Team Alpha Male camp, founder of the A1 Combat promotion and one of the first true mixed martial arts superstars to ply his trade below 155 pounds, Urijah Faber was ahead of his time in many respects. “The California Kid” turns 45 on May 14.

Faber wrestled collegiately at the University of California-Davis, where he was a two-time national qualifier. He transitioned to MMA in 2003, won 21 of his first 22 professional bouts, captured the King of the Cage bantamweight championship and ultimately moved on to World Extreme Cagefighting, where he held the featherweight title from March 17, 2006 to Nov. 5, 2008. Faber joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster in March 2011 and went 9-6 across his 15 appearances with the promotion. The Isla Vista, California, native retired after a December 2016 decision victory over Brad Pickett, his extensive list of accomplishments resulting in his enshrinement in the UFC Hall of Fame less than a year later. Faber returned to active competition with a 46-second stoppage of Ricky Simon at UFC Fight Night 155 on July 13, 2019 but has not suited up since he suffered a head kick knockout loss to Petr Yan the following December. He plans to return to competition as the headlining attraction for A1 Combat 25, where a combat jiu-jitsu match opposite Jeff Glover awaits on May 25.

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

MAY 1

Kiichi Kunimoto, 43
Nissen Osterneck, 43
Anton Kuivanen, 40
Chad Mendes, 39
Dakota Cochrane, 38
Liz McCarthy, 38
Raoni Barcelos, 37
Anistavio Medeiros de Figueiredo, 36
David Teymur, 35
Jonathan Pearce, 33
Khamzat Chimaev, 30
Miguel Jacob Elmokdisi, 27

MAY 2

Mina Kurobe, 47
Garret Nybakken, 43
Alberto Mina, 42
Tony Johnson, 41
Maxim Grishin, 40
Kikuyo Ishikawa, 40
Alexey Kunchenko, 40
Alex Nicholson, 34
Justin Scoggins, 32
Jarred Brooks, 31
Kevin Jousset, 31
Ritu Phogat, 30

MAY 3

Sam Greco, 57
Shonie Carter, 52
Pedro Rizzo, 50
Bubba McDaniel, 41
John Makdessi, 39
Patrick Holohan, 36
Marcio Alexandre Jr., 35
Bryan Barberena, 35
Mikkel Parlo, 34
Sandra Lavado, 30
Mariana Morais, 28
Milos Janicic, 27

MAY 4

Marcus Aurelio, 38
Victor Henry, 37
Caroline Yariwake da Cruz, 37
Nate Williams, 36
Lemmy Krusic, 35
Mike Otwell, 35
Molly McCann, 34
Roman Kopylov, 33
Roman Szymanski, 31
Nuerdanbieke Shayilan, 30
Hannah Guy, 29
Erin Blanchfield, 25

MAY 5

Alex Schoenauer, 48
Bruce Boyington, 45
Sidemar Honorio, 44
Rob Yundt, 44
Mizuto Hirota, 43
Steve Steinbeiss, 43
Lukasz Bugara, 38
Cortney Casey, 37
Bevon Lewis, 33
Kyle Crutchmer, 31
Jafel Filho, 31
Joshua Weems, 30

MAY 6

Haim Gozali, 51
Luiz Jorge Dutra Jr., 42
Brandon Visher, 40
Sam Alvey, 38
Amy Coleman, 38
Akop Stepanyan, 38
Brett Malone, 36
Beneil Dariush, 35
Ysidro Gutierrez, 32
Spike Carlyle, 31
Tanner Lourenco, 28
Valesca Machado, 28

MAY 7

Lodune Sincaid, 1973-2019
Frank Trigg, 52
Ariel Gandulla, 48
Vagner Tiburcio, 47
Kurt Pellegrino, 45
Ian McCall, 40
Kleber Willian Meireles Vilar, 39
Jodie Esquibel, 38
Jonas Flok, 37
Marcus McGhee, 34
Casey Jones, 33
Juliana Miller, 28

MAY 8

Jorge Patino, 51
Richard Odoms, 49
Caol Uno, 49
Tatsuya Kawajiri, 46
Manny Gamburyan, 43
Jessica Aguilar, 42
Mikey Gomez, 42
Danillo Villefort, 41
Brandon Davis, 34
Julian Marquez, 34
Dione Barbosa, 32
Sho Patrick Usami, 24

MAY 9

Spencer Fisher, 48
Antwain Britt, 46
Matt Kovacs, 43
Pablo Alfonso, 42
Thiago Meller, 42
Shinya Aoki, 41
Martin Stapleton, 41
Roger Zapata, 38
Slim Trabelsi, 31
Chuka Willis, 31
Igor Tanabe, 24
Wyatt Barber, 23

MAY 10

Grzegorz Jakubowski, 54
Anthony Perosh, 52
Dave Lehr Cochran, 51
Yoshiyuki Yoshida, 40
Jackie Vandenburgh, 43
Jake Underwood, 38
Nilton Gaviao, 36
Cory Hendricks, 36
Kalyn Schwartz, 35
Chris Duncan, 31
Yoshinori Horie, 29
Yan Teixeira, 29

MAY 11

Jeremy Lang, 49
Melvin Manhoef, 48
Magomed Sultanakhmedov, 40
Gilbert Jimenez, 39
Chas Skelly, 39
Joseph Sandoval, 38
Dequan Townsend, 38
Julia Avila, 36
Kamaru Usman, 36
Frankie Perez, 35
Mailton Azevedo, 29
Alexei Pergande, 23

MAY 12

Travis Lutter, 51
Louis Taylor, 45
Damian Grabowski, 44
Greg Loughran, 41
Maikel Perez, 41
Keri Melendez, 40
Junie Allen Browning, 39
Mark Cherico, 38
Cameron Dollar, 37
Austin Springer, 37
Shannon Ross, 35
Jared Vanderaa, 32

MAY 13

Fiona Muxlow, 47
Fredson Paixao, 45
Arnaud Lepont, 44
Yan Cabral, 41
Arjan Singh Bhullar, 38
Guilherme Viana, 38
Josh Ferguson, 36
Jai Herbert, 36
Yusuke Yachi, 35
Rainn Guerrero, 32
Sergei Pavlovich, 32
Marcos Degli, 24

MAY 14

Alex Andrade, 50
Urijah Faber, 45
Razak Al-Hassan, 42
Tom DeBlass, 42
Artur Guseinov, 40
Rashid Magomedov, 40
Rizlen Zouak, 38
Tyler Beneke, 34
Alvaro Herrera, 34
Adrian Mattheis, 31
Ruslan Satiev, 25
Chihiro Suzuki, 25

MAY 15

Eddie Bravo, 54
Shane DeZee, 47
Josh Burns, 46
Chad Griggs, 46
Chris de la Rocha, 45
Tom Lawlor, 41
Kenji Yamamoto, 40
Brett Chism, 37
Jessica Middleton, 36
Justin Lawrence, 34
Sullivan Cauley, 28
Robert Ruchala, 26

MAY 16

A.J. Lias Mansor, 49
Isidro Gonzalez, 43
Marcelo Barreira, 40
Hacran Dias, 40
Darren Elkins, 40
Gabriel Varga, 39
Anthony Birchak, 38
Nazareno Malegarie, 38
Stephen Martinez, 37
Andre Harrison, 36
Cody Brundage, 30
Sharabutdin Magomedov, 30

MAY 17

Matt Lindland, 54
Rudyard Moncayo, 51
Cheick Kongo, 49
Alistair Overeem, 44
Dan Hardy, 42
Paul Bradley, 41
Rich Hale, 39
Jeff Hughes, 36
Nolan Ticman, 36
Denis Tiuliulin, 36
Gillian Robertson, 29
Muin Gafurov, 28

MAY 18

Igor Borisov, 50
Muhsin Corbbrey, 46
Gabriel Gonzaga, 45
Michal Kita, 44
Kazuhisa Watanabe, 41
Jeremy Larsen, 40
Marco Beltran, 38
Frank Camacho, 35
Hannah Goldy, 32
Jalin Turner, 29
Caolan Loughran, 28
Maycee Barber, 26

MAY 19

Satoshi Honma, 56
Andre Gusmao, 47
Wagner da Conceicao Martins, 46
Georges St. Pierre, 43
John Maguire, 41
Malcolm Gordon, 34
Jamahal Hill, 33
Augusto Sakai, 33
Sergey Khandozhko, 32
Sodiq Yusuff, 31
Dusko Todorovic, 30
Motaz Askar, 26

MAY 20

Steve Berger, 51
Mike Trinh, 49
Roger Carroll, 42
Santino Defranco, 42
Roger Huerta, 41
Alexander Shlemenko, 40
Jinh Yu Frey, 39
Ramazan Emeev, 37
Scott Askham, 36
Andreas Stahl, 36
Bruno Cappelozza, 35
Jose Johnson, 29

MAY 21

Bruce Buffer, 67
Scott Smith, 45
Ricardo Lamas, 42
Tim Ruberg, 42
Aung La N Sang, 39
Artur Pronin, 36
Renato Carneiro, 35
Dustin Kimura, 35
Alex Martinez, 30
Khadis Ibragimov, 29
Kelly McGill-Velasco, 29
Keir Harvie, 26

MAY 22

Murilo Rua, 44
Tim Snyder, 44
Mark Oshiro, 41
Fumihiro Kitahara, 40
Joe Lauzon, 40
Keita Nakamura, 40
Amanda Lemos, 37
Teemu Packalen, 37
Damien Lapilus, 36
Steve Garcia, 32
Marcio Barbosa, 26
Josee Storts, 26

MAY 23

Igor Zinoviev, 58
Remco Pardoel, 55
Beau Baker, 45
Aaron Miller, 44
Sean Loeffler, 42
Allison Schmidt, 42
Jordan Dowdy, 38
Myles Price, 36
Cezary Kesik, 34
Nannan He, 33
Bruno Assis, 32
Mohammad Yahya, 30

MAY 24

Paulo Filho, 46
Frank Mir, 45
Alex Serdyukov, 44
Josh Thornburg, 40
Hernani Perpetuo, 39
Calen Born, 36
Yoni Sherbatov, 36
Jonathan Noriega, 33
Emily Whitmire, 33
Joshua Culibao, 30
Jacobi Jones, 28
Nathan Kelly, 27

MAY 25

Ralph Gracie, 53
Cung Le, 52
Brad Blackburn, 47
Alberto Rodriguez, 47
Hudson Rocha, 43
Mark Anthony Serkez, 43
Ulysses Gomez, 41
Dan Lariviere, 41
Scott Askham, 36
Ben Fodor, 36
Ciaran Clarke, 29
So Yul Kim, 27

MAY 26

Brad Kohler, 60
Kenny Florian, 48
Rob McCullough, 47
Joachim Hansen, 45
Mike Maldonado, 41
Lyman Good, 39
Mike Bruno, 38
Jeremy Stephens, 38
Aaron Chalmers, 37
Ricky Steele, 36
Jack Cartwright, 30
Cody Linne, 24

MAY 27

Gideon Ray, 51
Kotetsu Boku, 47
Ron Humphrey, 47
Chris Cariaso, 43
Will Campuzano, 38
Diego Brandao, 37
Alex Enlund, 37
Michael Hill, 37
Anthony Leone, 37
Jackie Cataline, 36
Geane Herrera, 34
Anvarbek Daniyalbekov, 29

MAY 28

Rory Singer, 48
Andy Wang, 47
Aaron Rosa, 43
Stephanie Alba, 42
Brian Melancon, 42
Scott Heckman, 40
Marc Stevens, 39
Tina Lahdemaki, 36
Luiz Eduardo Garagorri, 35
Hyder Amil, 34
Billy Elekana, 29
Niu Kang Kang, 28

MAY 29

Travis Fulton, 1977-2001
Matt Andersen, 53
Mike French, 49
Mamoru Yamaguchi, 47
Nate James, 46
Georgi Karakhanyan, 39
Guto Inocente, 38
Alex Torres, 36
Steven Peterson, 34
Caio Machado, 31
Ihor Potieria, 28
Alfan Rocher-Labes, 27

MAY 30

Lyoto Machida, 46
Antonio Carvalho, 45
Yves Jabouin, 45
Dan Bonnell, 44
Ivan Menjivar, 42
Bart Palaszewski, 41
Derrick Mehmen, 39
Virna Jandiroba, 36
Amanda Nunes, 36
Jesse McElligott, 34
Martin Sano, 33
Jansey Silva, 29

MAY 31

Elias Theodorou, 1988-2022
Takashi Sugiura, 54
Brandon Hunt, 51
Koji Oishi, 47
Keitaro Maeda, 44
Akitoshi Tamura, 44
Jesse Peterson, 43
Matt Veach, 43
Maria Rios, 41
Jessin Ayari, 32
Connor Matthews, 32
Kota Shirakawa, 31