This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Junior dos Santos Celebrates No. 40

Brian KnappJan 01, 2024

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Junior dos Santos combines genuine charisma with world-class skill as well as anyone in mixed martial arts history. “Cigano” turns 40 on Jan. 30.

Dos Santos made his professional debut in 2006, arrived in the UFC a little more than two years later and eventually climbed all the way to the top of the mountain. The Brazilian boxer captured the undisputed heavyweight crown on Nov. 12, 2011, when he cut down Cain Velasquez with punches just 64 seconds into their historic UFC on Fox 1 main event. Though his reign was short-lived—it lasted 413 days—and he went to lose two subsequent rematches with Velasquez in lopsided fashion, dos Santos’ place among the all-time greats was secure. Wins over Fabricio Werdum (twice), Stipe Miocic, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis highlight his resume, which includes 11 first-round finishes.

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

JAN. 1

Guy Mezger, 56
Eiji Mitsuoka, 48
Charles Diaz, 47
Joe Vedepo, 42
Robbie Peralta, 38
Gadzhimurad Antigulov, 37
John Lineker, 34
Stephen Loman, 32
Emily Ducote, 31
Herica Tiburcio, 31

JAN. 2

Igor Pokrajac, 45
Mac Danzig, 44
Luis Santos, 44
Oli Thompson, 44
Mahmoud Hassan, 43
Valentino Petrescu, 43
Konstantin Erokhin, 42
Tom Santos, 39
Julian Shore, 35
Brittany Camozzi, 32

JAN. 3

Rodney Glunder, 49
Owen Carr, 37
Josh Martin, 37
Harry Hunsucker, 35
Aleksandar Ilic, 35
Tanner Saraceno, 33
Vlad Popovskiy, 32
Marif Piraev, 31
Paddy Pimblett, 29
Magomed Saipulaev, 28

JAN. 4

Kimo Leopoldo, 56
Vladimir Matyushenko, 53
Shane Carwin, 49
Donny Walker, 44
Jose Maria Tome, 42
Derek Brunson, 40
Raphael Butler, 40
Jin Suk Jung, 40
Jung Min Kang, 38
Warlley Alves, 33

JAN. 5

Ruben Villareal, 54
Mike Bronzoulis, 45
John Gunderson, 45
Kaline Medeiros, 45
Trevor Smith, 43
Takahiro Suzuki, 37
Douglas Lima, 36
Albert Duraev, 35
Domingo Pilarte, 34
Goiti Yamauchi, 31

JAN. 6

Kevin Rosier, (1962-2015)
Kenny Garner, 49
Kalib Starnes, 49
Riki Fukuda, 43
Josh Rafferty, 43
Johnny Bedford, 41
Wilson Reis, 39
Michelle Waterson-Gomez, 38
Matheus Nicolau, 31
Desmond Torres, 27

JAN. 7

Donald Brashear, 52
Christian Colombo, 44
Maurice Jackson, 43
Caros Fodor, 40
Thiago Santos, 40
Jianping Yang, 38
Matt Hobar, 37
Levan Makashvili, 35
Jeff Peterson, 34
Kaytlin Neil, 32

JAN. 8

Tara LaRosa, 46
Andre Santos, 43
Ertan Balaban, 41
Colin Fletcher, 41
Lee Chadwick, 39
Phil Hawes, 35
Marcus Almeida, 34
Michael Graves, 33
Viacheslav Borshchev, 32
Guram Kutateladze, 32

JAN. 9

Pete Spratt, 53
David Terrell, 46
Adson Lira Nascimento, 45
Jake Shields, 45
Garreth McLellan, 42
Danielle Hindley, 40
Yoislandy Izquierdo, 40
Rich Lictawa, 36
Ode Osbourne, 32
Aslan Utegaliev, 27

JAN. 10

Yumiko Hotta, 57
Mickey Hughes, 45
Matt Brown, 43
Vernon Lewis, 40
Simon Marini, 38
Ben Neumann, 38
Magomed Magomedkerimov, 34
Merab Dvalishvili, 33
Serena DeJesus, 32
Joshua Pacio, 28

JAN. 11

Ivan Salaverry, 53
Rebecca Ruth, 45
Rafael Cavalcante, 43
Muhammed Lawal, 43
Eddie Alvarez, 40
Terry Etim, 38
Peter Sobotta, 37
Kurt Kinser, 36
Anatoliy Malykhin, 36
Artem Reznikov, 32

JAN. 12

Ikuhisa Minowa, 48
Frank Carrillo, 40
Young Bok Kil, 39
Angela Hill, 36
Jingnan Xiong, 36
Nate Jennerman, 31
Brena Soares Cardozo, 30
Carlos Felipe, 29
Isis Verbeek, 29
Arthur Lima, 28

JAN. 13

George Allen, 57
Leigh Remedios, 48
Nick Agallar, 45
Justin Hawes, 45
Dennis Siver, 45
Thomas Schulte, 43
Joe Schilling, 40
Derrick Krantz, 36
Lucas Almeida, 33
Monika Chochlikova, 28

JAN. 14

Matt Uhde, 50
Akbarh Arreola, 41
Daniel McWilliams, 41
Robert Turnquest, 41
Matt Riddle, 38
Kevin Chung, 31
Said Sowma, 31
Dricus Du Plessis, 30
Dylan Potter, 29
Denice Zamboanga, 27

JAN. 15

Alexandre Franca Nogueira, 46
Nobuhiro Obiya, 43
Yuki Nishigo, 39
Andrew Craig, 38
Efrain Escudero, 38
Joao Zeferino, 38
Alexander Gustafsson, 37
Matt Schnell, 34
Michael McDonald, 33
Zubaira Tukhugov, 33

JAN. 16

Paul Buentello, 50
Hyun Gyu Lim, 39
Sai Wang, 38
Mikhail Mokhnatkin, 34
Juan Adams, 32
Don'Tale Mayes, 32
Genaro Valdez, 32
Chris Avila, 31
Caio Borralho, 31
Luigi Vendramini, 28

JAN. 17

Gary Goodridge, 58
Ryan McGivern, 44
Cole Province, 43
Ariel Sexton, 42
Tyler Stinson, 38
Dusan Dzakic, 37
Brian Grinnell, 36
Alexander Sarnavskiy, 35
Marthin Hamlet, 32
Impa Kasanganay, 30

JAN. 18

Dave Bautista, 55
Neil Grove, 53
Jeff Monson, 53
Yoshikazu Fujiishi, 46
Luis Ramos, 43
Miguel Torres, 43
Diego Ferreira, 39
A.J. Dobson, 32
Marcin Held, 32
Konklak Suphisara, 28

JAN. 19

Aritano Silva Barbosa, 45
Justin Guthrie, 43
Joe Cason, 36
Leandro Higo, 35
Dustin Poirier, 35
Anthony Jimenez, 34
Timur Valiev, 34
Steven Graham, 33
Regivaldo Carvalho, 30
Jordan Lucas, 30

JAN. 20

Matt Ewin, 54
Alexandre Ribeiro, 43
Roy Doliguez, 42
Micah Terrill, 40
Donavon Frelow, 39
Juan Puerta, 36
Liudvik Sholinian, 34
Alberth Dias, 32
Erick Gonzalez, 32
Su Mudaerji, 28

JAN. 21

Demetrius Richards, 49
Francisco France, 41
Edson Barboza, 38
Patricky Freire, 38
Willie Gates, 37
Tony Kelley, 37
Matthew Lopez, 37
Shane Campbell, 36
Andre Ewell, 36
Ilia Topuria, 27

JAN. 22

Carlton Haselrig, 1966-2020
Min Soo Kim, 49
Jorge Antonio Cezario de Oliveira, 44
Luigi Fioravanti, 43
Tomasz Drwal, 42
Ji Hoon Kim, 42
Steve Ramirez, 37
Daniel Carey, 34
Mickey Gall, 32
Arnold Allen, 30

JAN. 23

Marco Ruas, 63
Tito Ortiz, 49
Cyrillo Padilha Neto, 46
Rodolfo Marques, 40
A.J. Matthews, 36
Christos Giagos, 34
Victor Altamirano, 33
Justin Wetzell, 32
Haobin Ma, 30
Shamil Akhmatkhanov, 28

JAN. 24

Akira Maeda, 65
Lukasz Chlewicki, 45
Jamall Johnson, 42
Matt Mazurek, 40
Jimmy Spicuzza, 39
Gurdarshan Mangat, 37
Westin Wilson, 35
Oskar Piechota, 34
Christian Lohsen, 29
Sergey Spivak, 29

JAN. 25

Ron van Clief, 81
Jorge Gurgel, 47
Paulo Thiago, 43
Heather Hardy, 42
Tor Troeng, 41
John Quinn, 41
Mike Easton, 40
Dominique Steele, 36
Nic Herron-Webb, 34
Roberto Soldic, 29

JAN. 26

Dan Bobish, 54
Flavio Luiz Moura, 48
Jared Rollins, 47
Carmelo Marrero, 43
Rafaello Oliveira, 42
Olivia Parker, 42
Justin Edwards, 41
Chico Camus, 39
Viktor Nemkov, 37
Ariane Lipski, 30

JAN. 27

Matt Skelton, 57
Derrick Ruffin, 53
Tony Sylvester, 46
Klay Konrad, 42
Anthony Pettis, 37
Emmanuel Walo, 37
Vinicius de Jesus, 34
Koki Naito, 34
Luis Saldana, 33
Tatsuro Taira, 24

JAN. 28

Claudio Rocha, 46
Tim Boetsch, 43
Cortez Coleman, 42
Ashleigh Grimshaw, 42
Jesse Fujarczyk, 41
Mandy Polk, 39
Brandon Saling, 38
Melsik Baghdasaryan, 32
Jaylon Bates, 27
Ky Bennett, 26

JAN. 29

Stephen Palling, 57
Valid Abdurachmanov, 52
Kazuyuki Miyata, 48
Annalisa Bucci, 41
Josh Tyler, 39
Rodolfo Rubio, 37
Garrett Mueller, 35
Daichi Takenaka, 34
Nikolay Aleksakhin, 34
Mallory Martin, 30

JAN. 30

Takaku Fuke, 55
Rob Kimmons, 43
Bruno Carvalho , 42
Jessica Penne, 41
Junior dos Santos, 40
Joshua Montoya, 34
Ali Motamed, 33
Daniel Swain, 33
Alex McGowan, 32
Magomed Mamaev, 29

JAN. 31

Kristian Rothaermel, 52
Akira Shoji, 50
Kengo Watanabe, 49
Maciej Jewtuszko, 43
Shunichi Shimizu, 39
Renan Barao, 37
Kirill Sukhomlinov, 36
Dhiego Lima, 35
Kyle Stewart, 35
Cesar Arzamendia, 33