This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic Turns 41

---

Whenever Mirko Filipovic decides to walk away from the sport of mixed martial arts, he will do so on a short list of all-time greatest heavyweights. “Cro Cop” will celebrate his 41st birthday on Sept. 10.

Filipovic debuted in 2001 and soon after rose to prominence inside Pride Fighting Championships, where his signature maneuver, the left high kick, made him a permanent fixture on highlight reels. During his run in the Japanese organization, “Cro Cop” twice fought for a heavyweight title, won the 2006 Pride open weight grand prix and defeated a long line of his contemporaries: Josh Barnett (thrice), Kazushi Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Hidehiko Yoshida. Filpovic’s August 2005 encounter with Fedor Emelianenko -- which he lost by unanimous decision -- was easily the most anticipated heavyweight fight in MMA history.

“Cro Cop” packed his bags for the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2007 but never lived up to the hype that preceded his arrival. He has enjoyed something of a resurgence over the last year, resurfacing in the UFC following back-to-back victories over 2008 Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii. Filipovic on April 11 avenged a previous loss to Gabriel Gonzaga, as the 2012 K-1 World Grand Prix winner took care of the Brazilian with third-round elbows and punches at a UFC Fight Night event in Poland.

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

SEPT. 1

Tim Kennedy (36)
Mike Pierce (35)
Nick Catone (34)
D.J. Linderman (32)

SEPT. 2

Steve Gable (39)
Jeff Curran (38)
Shamil Abdurakhimov (34)
Alessio Sakara (34)
Sean O'Connell (32)
Anthony Durnell (31)
Dragan Tesanovic (30)
Jamil Silveira da Conceicao (29)
Cathal Pendred (28)

SEPT. 3

Hidehiko Yoshida (46)
Leo Sylvest (42)
Daniel Jolly (31)
Dominick Cruz (30)
Lorenz Larkin (29)

SEPT. 4

Kevin Lee (23)

SEPT. 5

Emmanuel Yarborough (55)
James Brasco (43)
Gray Maynard (36)
Jacob Volkmann (35)
Tim Hague (32)
Raquel Pennington (27)

SEPT. 6

Thales Leites (34)

SEPT. 7

George Sotiropoulos (38)
Patrick Williams (34)
Alan Carlos (32)
Ian Loveland (32)
Yancy Medeiros (28)
Larissa Pacheco (21)

SEPT. 8

Rubens Xavier (41)
Mike Thomas Brown (40)
Chris Tuchscherer (40)
Yasuhiro Urushitani (39)
Chris Dempsey (28)
Maryna Moroz (24)

SEPT. 9

Don Richards (41)
Roger Narvaez (32)
Harris Sarmiento (32)
Jose Aldo (29)
Bobby Green (29)
Kyung Ho Kang (28)

SEPT. 10

Sanae Kikuta (44)
Mirko Filipovic (41)
Joe Doerksen (38)
Naoya Uematsu (37)

SEPT. 11

Eric Bedard (31)
Cody Gibson (28)

SEPT. 12

Yuki Sasaki (39)
James Irvin (37)
Ray Steinbeiss (36)
Stanislav Nedkov (34)
Mario Rinaldi (33)
Johny Hendricks (32)
Junior dos Santos (31)
Paul Kelly (31)
Dustin Neace (29)

SEPT. 13

Ronald LeBreton Jr. (30)

SEPT. 14

Antonio Silva (36)
Chris Lozano (33)
Alan Omer (27)

SEPT. 15

John Marsh (45)
Rick Hawn (39)
Sean McCorkle (39)
Jesse Gross (28)

SEPT. 17

Michael Guymon (41)
Denis Kang (38)
Scott Jorgensen (33)
Sean Holden (31)

SEPT. 18

Mike Pyle (40)
Abel Trujillo (32)
Felice Herrig (31)

SEPT. 19

Heather Clark (35)
Leandro Issa (32)
Matt Wiman (32)
Lewis Gonzalez (28)

SEPT. 20

Ryan Jensen (38)
Eric Schafer (38)
Quinn Mulhern (31)
Sarah Kaufman (30)

SEPT. 21

Josh Thomson (37)

SEPT. 22

Bob Sapp (42)
Forrest Petz (40)
Takanori Gomi (37)
Freddy Serrano (36)
Shamar Bailey (33)
Bruno Menezes (30)
Chuck O'Neil (30)
Mike de la Torre (29)
Elias Silverio (29)
Corey Anderson (26)

SEPT. 23

Shane del Rosario (1983-2013)
Jason Lambert (38)
Makoto Maeda (38)
Maro Perak (33)
Joe Riggs (33)
Sotaro Yamada (32)

SEPT. 24

Brad Pickett (37)
Sara McMann (35)
Brian Stann (35)
Kris McCray (34)
Roxanne Modafferi (33)
Chris Horodecki (28)

SEPT. 25

Todd Gouwenberg (41)
Olavo Belo (36)
Rashad Evans (36)
Allan Weickert (34)
Phil Davis (31)
Jake O'Brien (31)
Jessica Andrade (24)

SEPT. 26

Shinobu Aoyama (42)
David Branch (34)
Roger Gracie (34)
Hugo Viana (33)
John Dodson (31)
Ross Pearson (31)
Santiago Ponzinibbio (29)
Dileno Lopes (28)
Tom Breese (24)

SEPT. 27

Shannon Ritch (45)
Sasa Mitrovic (30)
Josh Bacallao (27)
Islam Makhachev (24)

SEPT. 28

Fedor Emelianenko (39)
Eduardo Felipe (35)

SEPT. 30

Herb Dean (45)
Yves Edwards (39)
Latoya Walker (36)
Damacio Page (33)
Scott Holtzman (32)
Neal Ewing (30)