Nurmagomedov will defend his title against Conor McGregor in the UFC 229 headliner on Oct. 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where he can convert the remaining few who question the legitimacy of his reign at 155 pounds. The undefeated Dagestani sambo stylist last competed at UFC 223 in April, when he took a lopsided five-round decision from “The Ultimate Fighter 15” finalist Al Iaquinta. The win brought with it the vacant lightweight crown and moved Nurmagomedov to 10-0 in the UFC. In addition to Iaquinta, Nurmagomedov has beaten Edson Barboza, Michael Johnson, Darrell Horcher, Rafael dos Anjos, Pay Healy, Abel Trujillo, Thiago Tavares, Gleison Tibau and Kamal Shalorus inside the Octagon. Those 10 fighters have 204 victories between them.
Others in MMA celebrating a birthday during the month of September:
SEPT. 1
Tim Kennedy, 39Mike Pierce, 38
Nick Catone, 37
D.J. Linderman, 35
Henrique da Silva, 29
Carl Seumanutafa, 29
SEPT. 2
Steve Gable, 42Jeff Curran, 41
Shamil Abdurakhimov, 37
Alessio Sakara, 37
Sean O'Connell, 35
Anthony Durnell, 34
Dragan Tesanovic, 33
Jamil Silveira da Conceicao, 32
Enrique Marin, 32
Cathal Pendred, 31
Alejandro Perez, 29
SEPT. 3
Hidehiko Yoshida, 49Leo Sylvest, 45
Daniel Jolly, 34
Dominick Cruz, 33
Lorenz Larkin, 32
SEPT. 4
Bao Quach, 39Katy Collins, 31
Kevin Lee, 26
Humberto Bandenay, 24
SEPT. 5
Emmanuel Yarborough, 1960-2015Tim Hague, 1983-2017
James Brasco, 46
Gray Maynard, 39
Jacob Volkmann, 38
Francis Ngannou, 32
Raquel Pennington, 30
SEPT. 6
Thales Leites, 37Lynn Alvarez, 33
Tarec Saffiedine, 32
Jared Gordon, 29
SEPT. 7
Patrick Williams, 37Alan Carlos, 35
Ian Loveland, 35
Pedro Munhoz, 32
Yancy Medeiros, 31
Larissa Pacheco, 24
SEPT. 8
Rubens Xavier, 44Mike Thomas Brown, 43
Chris Tuchscherer, 43
Yasuhiro Urushitani, 42
Chris Dempsey, 31
Maryna Moroz, 27
Logan Storley, 26
SEPT. 9
Don Richards, 44Roger Narvaez, 35
Harris Sarmiento, 35
Jose Aldo, 32
Bobby Green, 32
Kyung Ho Kang, 31
SEPT. 10
Masahiko Kimura, 1917-1993Sanae Kikuta, 47
Mirko Filipovic, 44
Joe Doerksen, 41
Naoya Uematsu, 40
SEPT. 11
Chance Farrar, 43Andre Winner, 37
Eric Bedard, 34
Cody Gibson, 31
SEPT. 12
Yuki Sasaki, 42James Irvin, 40
Ray Steinbeiss, 39
Stanislav Nedkov, 37
Mario Rinaldi, 36
Johny Hendricks, 35
Junior dos Santos, 34
Paul Kelly, 34
Dustin Neace, 32
SEPT. 13
Yuri Vaulin, 55Marcus Sursa, 36
Ronald LeBreton Jr., 33
Juan Archuleta, 31
SEPT. 14
Antonio Silva, 39Chris Lozano, 36
Alan Omer, 30
Yuki Motoya, 29
SEPT. 15
John Marsh, 48Rick Hawn, 39
Fernando Gonzalez, 35
Jesse Gross, 31
Horacio Gutierrez, 28
Mike Perry, 27
SEPT. 16
Roberto Traven, 50Pablo Garza, 35
Brandon Halsey, 32
Jeremy Kennedy, 26
SEPT. 17
Michael Guymon, 44Denis Kang, 41
Scott Jorgensen, 36
Sean Holden, 34
Hector Urbina, 31
SEPT. 18
Mike Pyle, 43Abel Trujillo, 35
Felice Herrig, 34
Ashkan Mokhtarian, 33
SEPT. 19
Heather Clark, 38Leandro Issa, 35
Matt Wiman, 35
Lewis Gonzalez, 31
SEPT. 20
Ryan Jensen, 41Eric Schafer, 41
Quinn Mulhern, 34
Sarah Kaufman, 33
Khabib Nurmagomedov, 30
SEPT. 21
Ronald Jhun, 48Josh Thomson, 40
Bianca Daimoni, 32
Martin Bravo, 25
SEPT. 22
Bob Sapp, 45Forrest Petz, 43
Takanori Gomi, 40
Fredy Serrano, 39
Shamar Bailey, 36
Bruno Menezes, 33
Chuck O'Neil, 33
Mike de la Torre, 32
Elias Silverio, 32
Corey Anderson, 29
SEPT. 23
Shane del Rosario, 1983-2013Jason Lambert, 41
Makoto Maeda, 41
Maro Perak, 36
Joe Riggs, 36
Sotaro Yamada, 35
SEPT. 24
Brad Pickett, 40Sara McMann, 38
Brian Stann, 38
Kris McCray, 37
Roxanne Modafferi, 36
Dan Charles, 33
Chris Horodecki, 31
SEPT. 25
Todd Gouwenberg, 41Olavo Belo, 39
Rashad Evans, 39
Allan Weickert, 37
Phil Davis, 34
Jake O'Brien, 34
Jessica Andrade, 27
SEPT. 26
Shinobu Aoyama, 45David Branch, 37
Roger Gracie, 37
Hugo Viana, 36
John Dodson, 34
Ross Pearson, 34
Santiago Ponzinibbio, 32
Dileno Lopes, 31
Tom Breese, 27
SEPT. 27
Shannon Ritch, 48Sasa Mitrovic, 33
Josh Bacallao, 30
Islam Makhachev, 27
SEPT. 28
Fedor Emelianenko, 42Jeremy Mahon, 39
Eduardo Felipe , 38
Justin Ledet, 30
SEPT. 29
James Te Huna, 37Andre Galvao, 36
Che Mills, 36
Eric Spicely, 32
Niko Price, 29
SEPT. 30
Herb Dean, 48Yves Edwards, 43
Latoya Walker, 39
Damacio Page, 36
Scott Holtzman, 35
Neal Ewing, 33