This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Fedor Emelianenko Turns 38

---

More than two years after his retirement, it seems a forgone conclusion that tales of Fedor Emelianenko’s mixed martial arts exploits will someday cross generational divides. “The Last Emperor” will celebrate his 38th birthday on Sept. 28.

Between April 6, 2001 and Nov. 7, 2009, Emelianenko went undefeated in 28 appearances, establishing himself as arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time. Though his reign of dominance ended with consecutive defeats to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson, the stoic Russian maintains a cult following to this day.

The incomparable Emelianenko retired with wins over 2006 Pride Fighting Championships open weight grand prix winner Mirko Filipovic, onetime Pride heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), 2000 Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland, 2001 K-1 World Grand Prix winner Mark Hunt and former Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholders Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Mark Coleman (twice) and Kevin Randleman. He delivered 26 of his 34 career victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission -- a staggering 23 of them came inside one round -- and never lost a decision.

Emelianenko made his final appearance under the M-1 Global banner in June 2012, when he knocked out Pedro Rizzo in 84 seconds at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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

SEPT. 1

Tim Kennedy (35)
Mike Pierce (34)
Nick Catone (33)
D.J. Linderman (31)

SEPT. 2

Steve Gable (38)
Jeff Curran (37)
Alessio Sakara (33)
Sean O'Connell (32)
Anthony Durnell (30)
Dragan Tesanovic (29)
Jamil Silveira da Conceicao (28)
Cathal Pendred (27)

SEPT. 3

Hidehiko Yoshida (45)
Leo Sylvest (41)
Dominick Cruz (29)
Lorenz Larkin (28)

SEPT. 5

Emmanuel Yarborough (54)
James Brasco (42)
Gray Maynard (35)
Jacob Volkmann (34)
Tim Hague (31)

SEPT. 7

George Sotiropoulos (37)
Alan Carlos (31)
Ian Loveland (31)
Yancy Medeiros (27)

SEPT. 8

Rubens Xavier (40)
Mike Thomas Brown (39)
Chris Tuchscherer (39)
Yasuhiro Urushitani (38)
Chris Dempsey (27)

SEPT. 9

Don Richards (40)
Roger Narvaez (31)
Harris Sarmiento (31)
Jose Aldo (28)
Bobby Green (28)
Kyung Ho Kang (27)

SEPT. 10

Sanae Kikuta (43)
Mirko Filipovic (40)
Joe Doerksen (37)
Naoya Uematsu (36)

SEPT. 11

Cody Gibson (27)

SEPT. 12

Yuki Sasaki (38)
James Irvin (36)
Ray Steinbeiss (35)
Stanislav Nedkov (33)
Mario Rinaldi (32)
Johny Hendricks (31)
Junior dos Santos (30)
Paul Kelly (30)
Dustin Neace (28)

SEPT. 13

Ronald LeBreton Jr. (29)

SEPT. 14

Carlos Gracie (1902-1994)
Antonio Silva (35)
Chris Lozano (32)
Adrian Miles (31)
Alan Omer (26)

SEPT. 15

John Marsh (44)
Rick Hawn (38)
Sean McCorkle (38)
Fernando Gonzalez (31)
Jesse Gross (27)

SEPT. 16

Nobutatsu Suzuki (37)
Brandon Halsey (28)

SEPT. 17

Michael Guymon (40)
Denis Kang (37)
Scott Jorgensen (32)

SEPT. 18

Mike Pyle (39)
Abel Trujillo (31)

SEPT. 19

Heather Clark (34)
Leandro Issa (31)
Matt Wiman (31)
Lewis Gonzalez (27)

SEPT. 20

Ryan Jensen (37)
Eric Schafer (37)
Quinn Mulhern (30)

SEPT. 21

Josh Thomson (36)
Remy Bussieres (25)

SEPT. 22

Bob Sapp (41)
Forrest Petz (39)
Takanori Gomi (36)
Shamar Bailey (32)
Bruno Menezes (29)
Chuck O'Neil (29)
Corey Anderson (25)

SEPT. 23

Shane del Rosario (1983-2013)
Jason Lambert (37)
Makoto Maeda (37)
Maro Perak (32)
Joe Riggs (32)
Sotaro Yamada (31)

SEPT. 24

Brad Pickett (36)
Sara McMann (34)
Brian Stann (34)
Kris McCray (33)
Adam McDonough (29)
Chris Horodecki (27)

SEPT. 25

Todd Gouwenberg (40)
Olavo Belo (35)
Rashad Evans (35)
Allan Weickert (33)
Phil Davis (30)
Jake O'Brien (30)

SEPT. 26

Shinobu Aoyama (41)
Roger Gracie (33)
Hugo Viana (32)
John Dodson (30)
Ross Pearson (30)
Tom Breese (23)

SEPT. 27

Shannon Ritch (44)
Sasa Mitrovic (29)
Josh Bacallao (26)

SEPT. 28

Fedor Emelianenko (38)
Eduardo Felipe (34)
James Te Huna (33)

SEPT. 30

Herb Dean (44)
Yves Edwards (38)
Damacio Page (32)