This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Chris Weidman Turns 40

Brian KnappJun 04, 2024

He authored one of the most memorable upsets in the sport’s history and for a time reigned atop the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division, but his peak was so brief and his fall so precipitous that he might eventually be remembered more as one of MMA’s true tragic figures. Chris Weidman celebrates his 40th birthday on June 17.

Weidman was a four-time collegiate All-American wrestler at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, and Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. He compiled a 51-21 record in two seasons at Hofstra, placing sixth nationally as a junior and third nationally as a senior. Weidman won his first 13 professional bouts as a mixed martial artist and sent shockwaves through the sport with his historic knockout of Anderson Silva—it ended the Brazilian icon’s 2,457-day stay atop the 185-pound weight class—at UFC 162 on July 6, 2013. The Serra-Longo Fight Team export went on to defend the middleweight crown on three different occasions, besting Silva in their rematch before turning away Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort. However, a technical knockout loss to Luke Rockhold at UFC 194 marked the end of his run as champion and gave way to a series of setbacks and major injuries, including a career-threatening leg break in 2021. Weidman owns a 1-1 record since his return from more than a two-year absence, having last fought at UFC on ESPN 54, where he pushed back on speculative retirement talk and took a technical decision from Bruno Silva on March 30.

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

JUNE 1

Miodrag Petkovic, 55
Dan Evensen, 50
Dave Huckaba, 50
Antonio Schembri, 50
Michael Buchkovich, 47
James Giboo, 46
Wendell de Oliveira Marques, 41
Evgeny Erokhin, 38
Patricky Freire, 38
Kane Mousah, 38
Bobby Moffett, 34
Sarah Alpar, 33

JUNE 2

Chris Haseman, 55
Matt Serra, 50
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, 48
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, 48
Christian M'Pumbu, 47
Roan Carneiro, 46
Tatsuya Mizuno, 43
Eduardo Bustillos, 37
Christopher Wing, 36
Magomed Ankalaev, 32
Jordan Leavitt, 29
Islam Omarov, 27

JUNE 3

Rick Roufus, 58
Stefan Leko, 50
Jason MacDonald, 49
Jason McLean, 47
Justin Baesman, 43
Linton Vassell, 41
Mara Romero Borella, 38
Greg Soto, 38
Ruslan Abiltarov, 32
Vernon Ramos, 32
Arkadiusz Wrzosek, 32
Lucas Brennan, 24

JUNE 4

Egan Inoue, 59
Simona Soukupova, 47
Tonya Evinger, 43
Jazzy Gabert, 42
Eric Smith, 40
Michael Johnson, 38
James Krause, 38
Saul Almeida, 35
Brittney Victoria Grizzelle, 33
Abdisalam Kubanychbek, 30
Clayton Carpenter, 28
Erzo Gudaev, 20

JUNE 5

Rob Kaman, 64
Tjerk Vermanen, 54
Brian Warren, 50
Adriano Balby, 44
Leo Zulic, 38
Jose Caceres, 37
Samba Coulibaly, 37
Rosa Acevedo, 36
David Dvorak, 32
Ricky Turcios, 31
Daniel da Silva, 28
Connor Hughes, 27

JUNE 6

Joel Powell, 1980-2015
David Bielkheden, 45
Vagner Rocha, 42
Adam Kowalski, 41
Magno Almeida, 39
Ray Wood, 35
Chris Fishgold, 32
Matheus Mattos, 32
Ilara Joanne, 30
Xavier Siller, 30
Eli Aronov, 28
Carlos Huachin, 28

JUNE 7

Chris Wilson, 47
Bruno Carvalho , 42
Saad Awad, 41
Ryan Bader, 41
Jenny Liou, 41
Shane Kruchten, 40
Nate Landwehr, 36
Tae Ho Jin, 35
Michael Kuiper, 35
Mark Burns, 33
Sean Woodson, 32
David Onama, 30

JUNE 8

Dan Severn, 66
Marvin Eastman, 53
Hirotaka Yokoi, 46
Jason Novelli, 45
Noad Lahat, 40
Tim Roman, 39
Takenori Sato, 39
Trey Houston, 36
Jonas Magard, 32
Kurban Gadzhiev, 31
Carlo Pedersoli Jr., 31
Rayanne dos Santos, 29

JUNE 9

Dion Staring, 46
Derrick Burnsed, 44
Muslim Salikhov, 40
John Phillips, 39
Teddy Holder, 38
Jim Hettes, 37
Bill Algeo, 35
Arseniy Sultanov, 35
Takashi Sato, 34
Fernanda Araujo, 33
Dae Sung Park, 31
Dakota Bush, 30

JUNE 10

Alfonso Alcarez, 54
Brendan Tierney, 49
Luiz Azeredo, 48
Hiroyuki Takaya, 47
Bendy Casimir, 44
Nordine Taleb, 43
Walt Harris, 41
Frank Lester, 40
Jack Hermansson, 36
Denis Goltsov, 34
Gloria de Paula, 29
Anton Turkalj, 28

JUNE 11

Lavar Johnson, 47
Tsuneo Kimura, 42
Daron Cruickshank, 39
Artur Kadlubek, 39
Tadaaki Yamamoto, 38
Joshua Dustin Hardwick, 37
Matt Frevola, 34
Eduard Vartanyan, 33
J.J. Aldrich, 32
Luana Carolina, 31
Ivana Petrovic, 30
Christian Echols, 26

JUNE 12

Ivan Iberico, 46
Jason Dent, 44
Andy Ologun, 41
Celine Haga, 40
Ali Bagautinov, 39
Matt Van Buren, 38
James Chaney, 37
Nicdali Rivera, 37
Zane Kamaka, 35
John Lineker, 34
Andre Petroski, 33
Kyler Phillips, 29

JUNE 13

Erin Toughill, 47
Daniel Aguiar, 44
Greg Rebello, 42
Paul Bradley, 41
Carson Beebe, 36
Sid Bice, 35
Deron Winn, 35
Suman Mokhtarian, 32
Ronnie Lawrence, 32
Kennedy Nzechukwu, 32
Lucie Pudilova, 30
William Gomis, 27

JUNE 14

Teila Tuli, 55
Chad Hinton, 53
Landon Showalter, 48
Claude Patrick, 44
Daniel Gallemore, 39
Danny Martinez, 39
Chris Barnett, 38
Anatpong Bunrad, 38
Sergey Morozov, 35
Amador Ramirez, 34
Polyana Viana, 32
Naoki Inoue, 27

JUNE 15

Jeb Chiles, 45
Kevin Casey, 43
Joe Stevenson, 42
Ryan Keenan, 39
Mamoru Uoi, 39
Kevin Wirth, 37
Gabriel Benitez, 36
Justin Frazier, 35
Taneisha Tennant, 35
Jay Perrin, 31
Lukasz Sudolski, 31
Viskhan Kadirov, 25

JUNE 16

Rich Attonito, 47
Scott Heston, 46
Daria Ibragimova, 40
John Franchi, 39
Chris Gruetzemacher, 38
Vyacheslav Vasilevsky, 36
Xiaonan Yan, 35
Marat Magomedov, 34
Bruno Miranda, 34
Shamil Nikaev, 29
Drako Rodriguez, 28
Francisco Prado, 22

JUNE 17

Kuniyoshi Hironaka, 48
Andrei Semenov, 47
Casey Noland, 46
Chris Weidman, 40
Sam Oropeza, 39
Gavin Tucker, 38
Dominic Mazzotta, 37
Mike Shipman, 34
Xiaoyang Liu, 33
Luan Chagas, 31
Matthew Frincu, 31
Mauricio Ruffy, 28

JUNE 18

Wes Combs, 51
Assuerio Silva, 50
Brett Oteri, 47
Manuel Meraz, 46
Matt Baker, 40
Darrill Schoonover, 39
Edilson Teixeira, 38
Kwan Ho Kwak, 35
C.J. Vergara, 33
Bokang Masunyane, 30
Lorrany Santos, 27
Billy Goff, 26

JUNE 19

Tony Valente, 60
Chris Seifert, 55
Savant Young, 48
Mike Swick, 45
Josh Appelt, 41
Richie Vaculik, 41
Lamont Stafford, 40
Nick Mamalis, 38
Ann Osman, 38
Justin Linn, 35
Satomi Takano, 34
Bartlomiej Gladkowicz, 28

JUNE 20

Mike Van Arsdale, 59
Roy Nelson, 48
Marion Reneau, 47
Jean Silva, 47
Quinton Jackson, 46
Reza Madadi, 46
Blake Bowman, 43
Alex Caceres, 36
Bharat Khandare, 35
Logan Nail, 35
Maria Henderson, 32
Vadim Nemkov, 32

JUNE 21

Tim Lajcik, 59
Marcos Oliveira, 46
John Polakowski, 43
Chris Fields, 41
Erick Silva, 40
Sunna Rannveig Davidsdottir, 39
Joey Holt, 39
Jake Lindsey, 38
Leah McCourt, 32
Tom Duquesnoy, 31
Tresean Gore, 30
Christian Lee, 26

JUNE 22

Randy Couture, 61
Ryushi Yanagisawa, 52
Brian Bowles, 44
Hiroshi Izumi, 42
Bethe Correia, 41
Douglas Silva de Andrade, 39
Marianna Kheyfets, 39
Dave Morgan, 39
Bradley Scott, 35
Taila Santos, 31
Jesus Pinedo, 28
Usman Abasov, 24

JUNE 23

Charles "Mask" Lewis, 1963-2009
Rob Wince, 51
Marcos Galvao, 43
Nick Thompson, 43
Lee Morrison, 39
Mike Richman, 39
Paul Ruiz, 37
Mark Striegl, 36
Anthony Taylor, 35
Jhonata Diniz, 33
Giorgio Pietrini, 33
Akhmed Mukhmadov, 23

JUNE 24

Mari Kaneko, 52
Joe Hurley, 46
Junior Assuncao, 43
Rick Reeves, 41
Jessamyn Duke, 38
Brendan O'Reilly, 37
Max Coga, 35
Brian Camozzi, 33
Joby Sanchez, 33
Alton Cunningham, 31
Jaqueline Amorim, 29
Michael Morales, 25

JUNE 25

Yoshihiro Nakao, 52
Alexey Oleynik, 47
Luciano Azevedo, 43
Carlo Prater, 43
Marcelo Guimaraes, 41
Marcos Rogerio de Lima, 39
Rob Font, 37
Sean Spencer, 37
Jung Kyung Lee, 36
Andre Fili, 34
Qileng Aori, 31
Cheyanne Vlismas, 29

JUNE 26

Pawel Nastula, 54
Virgil Zwicker, 42
Eddie Wineland, 40
Adam Cella, 39
Faith McMah, 38
Kin Moy, 34
Kelvin Tiller, 34
Si Woo Park, 33
Jarrah Al-Silawi, 32
Hannah Cifers, 32
Diana Belbita, 28
Bruna Ellen, 28

JUNE 27

Mu Bae Choi, 54
Hiroyuki Abe, 47
Yoshinori Suzuki, 43
Ernest Chavez, 41
Joe Taimanglo, 40
Ben Reiter, 37
Casey Ryan, 37
Tony Way, 36
Gustavo Lopez, 35
Hugo Lujan, 35
Nathan Maness, 33
Denys Bondar, 32

JUNE 28

Erik Paulson, 59
Daniel Gracie, 52
Fabio Mello, 49
Sam Hoger, 44
Vuyisile Colossa, 42
DaMarques Johnson, 42
Jason Young, 38
Brennan Ward, 36
Johnny Case, 35
Josh Parisian, 35
Thiago Rela, 35
Jacob Kilburn, 29

JUNE 29

Shin Kochiwa, 44
Michele Gutierrez, 43
Chad Reiner, 43
Ryo Kawamura, 43
Mike Whitehead, 43
Ricky Rainey, 41
Cody East, 36
Jimmie Rivera, 35
Rena Kubota, 33
Yousri Belgaroui, 32
Rose Namajunas, 32
Gerald Scott, 30

JUNE 30

Yasuko Tamada, 57
Fabiano Scherner, 52
Gilbert Yvel, 48
Papy Abedi, 46
Lumumba Sayers, 46
Katja Kankaanpaa, 43
Dan Miller, 43
Stephen Ledbetter, 42
Zach Makovsky, 42
Tim Wilde, 37
George Tokkos, 34
Ali Malsagov, 25