This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Rashad Evans Celebrates No. 40

His climb to the top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s storied 205-pound weight class was nothing if not improbable when considering that it began as an undersized heavyweight on “The Ultimate Fighter 2” -- a season he went on to win despite being picked behind Keith Jardine, Mike Whitehead, Seth Petruzelli and Dan Christison. Rashad Evans turns 40 on Sept. 25.

Before his transition to mixed martial arts, the Niagara Falls, New York, native wrestled collegiately at Michigan State University, where he posted 48 wins across two seasons. Evans made his MMA debut in April 2004 and started his career with a 14-fight unbeaten streak (13-0-1) that included his triumphant run on “The Ultimate Fighter” and culminated with his capturing the undisputed light heavyweight crown with a third-round technical knockout of Forrest Griffin at UFC 92. Though his reign was brief and ended in a hail of punches from Lyoto Machida, the man they call “Suga” remained a key piece of the UFC puzzle for four more years. However, five consecutive defeats between Oct. 3, 2015 and June 9, 2018 resulted in Evans’ retirement. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame on July 5.

Others in MMA celebrating a birthday in September:

SEPT. 1

Tim Kennedy, 40
Mike Pierce, 39
Nick Catone, 38
D.J. Linderman, 36
Henrique da Silva , 30
Carl Seumanutafa, 30

SEPT. 2

Steve Gable, 43
Jeff Curran, 42
Shamil Abdurakhimov, 38
Alessio Sakara, 38
Sean O'Connell, 36
Anthony Durnell, 35
Dragan Tesanovic, 34
Jamil Silveira da Conceicao, 33
Enrique Marin, 33
Cathal Pendred, 32
Alejandro Perez, 30

SEPT. 3

Hidehiko Yoshida, 50
Leo Sylvest, 46
Daniel Jolly, 35
Dominick Cruz, 34
Lorenz Larkin, 33

SEPT. 4

Jason David Frank, 46
Bao Quach, 40
Katy Collins, 32
Kevin Lee, 27
Humberto Bandenay, 25

SEPT. 5

Emmanuel Yarborough, 1960-2015
Tim Hague, 1983-2017
James Brasco, 47
Gray Maynard, 40
Jacob Volkmann, 39
Francis Ngannou, 33
Raquel Pennington, 31

SEPT. 6

Thales Leites, 38
Claudio Henrique da Silva , 37
Lynn Alvarez, 34
Tarec Saffiedine, 33
Jared Gordon, 30

SEPT. 7

Patrick Williams, 38
Alan Carlos, 36
Ian Loveland, 36
Pedro Munhoz, 33
Yancy Medeiros, 32
Larissa Pacheco, 25

SEPT. 8

Rubens Xavier, 45
Mike Thomas Brown, 44
Chris Tuchscherer, 44
Yasuhiro Urushitani, 43
Chris Dempsey, 32
Maryna Moroz, 28
Logan Storley, 27

SEPT. 9

Don Richards, 45
Roger Narvaez, 36
Harris Sarmiento, 36
Jose Aldo, 33
Bobby Green, 33
Kyung Ho Kang, 32

SEPT. 10

Masahiko Kimura, 1917-1993
Sanae Kikuta, 48
Mirko Filipovic, 45
Joe Doerksen, 42
Naoya Uematsu, 41

SEPT. 11

Chance Farrar, 44
Andre Winner, 38
Eric Bedard, 35
Cody Gibson, 32
Te Edwards, 29

SEPT. 12

Yuki Sasaki, 43
James Irvin, 41
Ray Steinbeiss, 40
Stanislav Nedkov, 38
Mario Rinaldi, 37
Johny Hendricks, 36
Junior dos Santos, 35
Paul Kelly, 35
Dustin Neace, 33

SEPT. 13

Yuri Vaulin, 56
Marcus Sursa, 37
Ronald LeBreton Jr., 34
Andy Uhrich, 34
Juan Archuleta, 32

SEPT. 14

Antonio Silva, 40
Chris Lozano, 37
Dwight Grant, 35
Alan Omer, 31
Yuki Motoya, 30

SEPT. 15

John Marsh, 49
Rick Hawn, 40
Fernando Gonzalez, 36
Jesse Gross, 32
Horacio Gutierrez, 29
Mike Perry, 28

SEPT. 16

Roberto Traven, 51
Nobutatsu Suzuki, 42
Pablo Garza, 36
Brandon Halsey, 33
Jeremy Kennedy, 27

SEPT. 17

Michael Guymon, 45
Denis Kang, 42
Scott Jorgensen, 37
Sean Holden, 35
Hector Urbina, 32

SEPT. 18

Ryuta Sakurai, 48
Mike Pyle, 44
Abel Trujillo, 36
Felice Herrig, 35
Ashkan Mokhtarian, 34

SEPT. 19

Yoshihiro Takayama, 53
Heather Clark, 39
Leandro Issa, 36
Matt Wiman, 36
Lewis Gonzalez, 32

SEPT. 20

Ryan Jensen, 42
Eric Schafer, 42
Quinn Mulhern, 35
Sarah Kaufman, 34
Khabib Nurmagomedov, 31

SEPT. 21

Ronald Jhun, 49
Mario Miranda, 41
Josh Thomson, 41
Bianca Daimoni, 33
Martin Bravo, 26

SEPT. 22

Bob Sapp, 46
Forrest Petz, 44
Takanori Gomi, 41
Fredy Serrano, 40
Shamar Bailey, 37
Bruno Menezes, 34
Chuck O'Neil, 34
Mike de la Torre, 33
Elias Silverio, 33
Corey Anderson, 30

SEPT. 23

Shane del Rosario, 1983-2013
Jason Lambert, 42
Makoto Maeda, 42
Maro Perak, 37
Joe Riggs, 37
Sotaro Yamada, 36

SEPT. 24

Brad Pickett, 41
Sara McMann, 39
Brian Stann, 39
Kris McCray, 38
Roxanne Modafferi, 37
Dan Charles, 34
Chris Horodecki, 32

SEPT. 25

Todd Gouwenberg, 42
Olavo Belo, 40
Rashad Evans, 40
Allan Weickert, 38
Phil Davis, 35
Jake O'Brien, 35
Jessica Andrade, 28

SEPT. 26

Shinobu Aoyama, 46
David Branch, 38
Roger Gracie, 38
Hugo Viana, 37
John Dodson, 35
Ross Pearson, 35
Santiago Ponzinibbio, 33
Dileno Lopes, 32
Tom Breese, 28

SEPT. 27

Shannon Ritch, 49
Thiago Jambo Goncalves, 39
Sasa Mitrovic, 34
Josh Bacallao, 31
Islam Makhachev, 28

SEPT. 28

Mario Sperry, 53
Fedor Emelianenko, 43
Jeremy Mahon, 40
Eduardo Felipe , 39
Justin Ledet, 31

SEPT. 29

James Te Huna, 38
Andre Galvao, 37
Che Mills, 37
Eric Spicely, 33
Niko Price, 30

SEPT. 30

Herb Dean, 49
Yves Edwards, 44
Latoya Walker, 40
Damacio Page, 37
Scott Holtzman, 36
Neal Ewing, 34