This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Ben Askren Celebrates No. 40

A four-time NCAA All-American and two-time national champion at the University of Missouri who went on to represent the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Ben Askren remains one of the most decorated amateur wrestlers to ever enter the combat sports sphere. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native turns 40 on July 18.

Askren still owns the all-time records for career victories (153) and pins (91) at Missouri, where he was twice awarded the Dan Hodge Trophy—collegiate wrestling’s equivalent to the Heisman. He made his professional mixed martial arts debut under the Headhunter Promotions banner in 2009, made his way to Bellator MMA a little more than a year later and laid claim to the company’s welterweight crown with a five-round unanimous decision over Lyman Good at Bellator 33. Askren held the title from Oct. 21, 2010 to Nov. 14, 2013, when he vacated the throne to sign with ONE Championship. He ascended to the top of the Singapore-based organization’s welterweight division inside of a year and remained there until he was sent to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in a historic contract swap for Demetrious Johnson in November 2018. Askren submitted Robbie Lawler with a bulldog choke—the result was tainted by an apparent officiating error—in his first Octagon assignment, then crashed and burned in two subsequent appearances. Jorge Masvidal wiped him out with a flying knee just five seconds into their UFC 239 encounter on July 6, 2019, and Demian Maia put him to sleep with a rear-naked choke in the third round of their UFC Fight Night 162 headliner on Oct. 26, 2019. Askren announced his retirement from MMA competition less than a month later, closing out his career with a record of 19-2 with one no contest.

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

JULY 1

Amar Suloev, 1976-2016
Vener Galiev, 49
Forrest Griffin, 45
Cat Zingano, 42
Ali Yaakub, 40
Karlos Vemola, 39
Norman Paraisy, 38
Craig White, 34
William Macario, 33
Mario Bautista, 31
Gadzhi Rabadanov, 31
Miranda Maverick, 27

JULY 2

Jose Canseco, 60
Brad Cardinal, 46
Dawond Pickney, 46
Reuben Duran, 41
Vinny Magalhaes, 40
Sevak Magakian, 39
Godofredo Castro, 37
Brett Cooper, 37
Kayla Harrison, 34
Hakeem Dawodu, 33
Steven Hill, 31
Jhanlo Mark Sangiao, 22

JULY 3

Joe Moreira, 63
Mike Bencic, 58
Brendan Seguin, 48
Wanderlei Silva, 48
Tommy Depret, 45
Danny Abbadi, 41
Sascha Weinpolter, 38
Tim Williams, 38
Adam Milstead, 37
Jesse Bazzi, 33
Charlie Campbell, 29
Adam Soldaev, 27

JULY 4

Yoshihisa Yamamoto, 54
Kelly Dullanty, 47
Dave Vader, 47
Julia Budd, 41
Shamil Zavurov, 40
Harry Johnson, 38
Batgerel Danaa, 35
Tyree Fortune, 34
Tyrell Fortune, 34
Charlie Ontiveros, 33
Richie Lewis, 30
Isaac Dulgarian, 28

JULY 5

Tengiz Tedoradze, 57
John Alessio, 45
Edson Berto, 41
Kevin Knabjian, 40
Ian McCall, 40
Maurice Greene, 38
Waqar Umar, 34
Luis Pena, 31
Keanu Subba, 30
Joe Giannetti, 29
Ernesta Kareckaite, 27
Makoto Takahashi, 24

JULY 6

Tom Erikson, 60
Valerie Coolbaugh, 50
Masaaki Sugawara, 45
Mike Rio, 43
Gesias Cavalcante, 41
Laura Howarth, 37
Nick Roehrick, 37
Hans Stringer, 37
Dmitriy Sosnovskiy, 35
Randy Costa, 30
Jordan Newman, 29
Sattor Rizoev, 23

JULY 7

Michael Westbrook, 52
Jason Brilz, 49
Pat Barry, 45
Eliot Marshall, 44
Stav Economou, 38
Jon Manley, 38
Patricio Freire, 37
Adam Yandiev, 36
Cody Garbrandt, 33
Adam Borics, 31
Mikey Musumeci, 28
Daniel Zellhuber, 25

JULY 8

Taiei Kin, 54
Nick LoBosco, 40
Aleksei Butorin, 38
Michael Arrant, 37
Yosuke Saruta, 37
Ryan Walker, 35
Randy Brown, 34
Jonas Billstein, 33
Tagir Ulanbekov, 33
Kiamrian Abbasov, 31
Angela Lee, 28
Lun Qiu, 27

JULY 9

Matt Lee, 53
Tim Credeur, 47
George Sotiropoulos, 47
Gerald Turek, 45
Peter Davis, 43
Alan Patrick, 41
Cristiane Justino, 39
Vitaly Shemetov, 39
Ashlee Evans-Smith, 37
Belal Muhammad, 36
Charlie Radtke, 34
Liam McCracken, 23

JULY 10

Pete Williams, 49
Gabriel Miglioli, 43
Gleison Tibau, 41
Lester Caslow, 40
Brock Jardine, 39
Chel Erwin-Davis, 38
Aaron Derrow, 37
Helen Peralta, 36
Adam Acquaviva, 32
Austin Lingo, 30
Rafael Vinicius Pereira Costa, 27
Lorena Cubero, 20

JULY 11

Jesse Finney, 50
Masutatsu Yano, 49
Sky Moiseichik, 46
Adam Maciejewski, 44
Josh Clopton, 43
Enoc Solves Torres, 40
Brandon Thatch, 39
Kron Gracie, 36
Izabela Badurek, 33
Demetrius Wilson, 30
Laird Anderson, 26
Cory McKenna, 25

JULY 12

Keiichiro Yamamiya, 52
Amir Rahnavardi, 50
Brock Lesnar, 47
Soa Palelei, 47
Carlos Eduardo Rocha, 43
Mitch Whitesel, 43
Koshi Matsumoto, 41
Anthony Dizy, 36
Stephanie Eggink, 36
Blake Bilder, 34
Cody Pfister, 34
Fatima Kline, 24

JULY 13

Ricardo Liborio, 57
Dave Strasser, 55
Tom Aaron, 46
Hidehiko Hasegawa, 46
Jonathan Goulet, 45
Tom Watson, 42
Lee Burns, 40
Rina Tomita, 40
Juan Barrantes, 37
Cynthia Calvillo, 37
Bruno Silva, 35
Israpil Shadedov, 21

JULY 14

Matt Hume, 58
Kazushi Sakuraba, 55
Mostapha Al-Turk, 51
Falaniko Vitale, 50
Wagnney Fabiano, 49
Rolles Gracie, 46
Leonard Garcia, 45
Shane Roller, 45
Alex Garcia, 37
Conor McGregor, 36
Jason Knight, 32
Ali Suleymanov, 23

JULY 15

Antony Rea, 48
Matt Mitrione, 46
Leonardo Pecanha, 42
Edward Faaloloto, 39
Kevin Croom, 37
Chris Curtis, 37
Roman Dolidze, 36
Viktor Pesta, 34
Andres Quintana, 33
Steven Rodriguez, 33
Orion Cosce, 30
Preston Parsons, 29

JULY 16

Joe Charles, 66
Christophe Leininger, 62
Roland Payne, 60
Bobby Lashley, 48
Javier Vazquez, 47
Toby Imada, 46
Kazuhiro Nakamura, 45
Walel Watson, 40
Lacey Sears, 36
Ibragim Chuzhigaev, 33
Louis Smolka, 33
Thad Jean, 26

JULY 17

Alexander Otsuka, 53
Yuki Kondo, 49
Sean McCorkle, 48
Ricardo Arona, 46
Mamed Khalidov, 44
Travis Browne, 42
Marcus LeVesseur, 41
Saul Elizondo, 39
Bruno Santos, 37
Mike Byrnes, 34
Sung Bin Jo, 32
Jeff Molina, 27

JULY 18

Crosley Gracie, 45
Damir Mihajlovic, 42
Hatsu Hioki, 41
Ben Askren, 40
Alexander Yakovlev, 40
Yerzhan Estanov, 39
Cody Floyd, 36
Andreas Michailidis, 36
Philip Rowe, 34
Andrey Kovalev, 31
Grachik Bozinyan, 29
Zachary Borrego, 28

JULY 19

Jeremiah Constant, 50
Freddy Assuncao, 42
Raphael Assuncao, 42
Mark Dickman, 40
Elvis Mutapcic, 38
Hector Sandoval, 38
Jon Jones, 37
Justin Willis, 37
Kemran Lachinov, 34
Manny Bermudez, 30
Kasum Kasumov, 30
Valerie Loureda, 26

JULY 20

Aaron Simpson, 50
Pat Healy, 41
Ryan Healy, 41
Ryan McCurdy, 39
Brenton Taylor, 39
Gilbert Burns, 38
Aaron McKenzie, 36
Alec Williams, 34
DiMarcco Hutchison, 31
Ho Taek Oh, 31
Caio Machado, 30
Alexey Vartanov, 27

JULY 21

Paulo Cesar Silva, 61
Aaron Stark, 49
Chris Leben, 44
Tim McKenzie, 43
Yushin Okami, 43
Alessandro Ricci, 42
Joey Gomez, 38
Antonio dos Santos Jr., 36
Ivan Castillo, 34
Herdeson Batista, 32
Filip Pejic, 32
Danilo Belluardo, 30

JULY 22

Carlos Barreto, 56
Adrienna Jenkins, 43
Mark Hominick, 42
Eddie Gordon, 41
Cain Carrizosa, 38
Israel Adesanya, 35
Rory MacDonald, 35
Lerone Murphy, 33
Soren Bak, 32
Archie Colgan, 29
Reina Miura, 28
Wellington Turman, 28

JULY 23

Guram Gugenishvili, 1987-2014
Georgy Kaysinov, 53
Akira Kikuchi, 46
Sergio Moraes, 42
LeVon Maynard, 41
Kalindra Faria, 38
Chad Laprise, 38
Marcus Vanttinen, 37
Julius Anglickas, 33
Teruto Ishihara, 33
Istela Nunes, 31
Rodtang Jitmuangnon, 26

JULY 24

Jason DeLucia, 55
Takahiro Kajita, 48
Nathan Coy, 46
Mike Lullo, 45
Tim Carpenter, 44
Josh Sampo, 40
Anderson dos Santos, 39
Igor Svirid, 38
Julian Lane, 37
Jamall Emmers, 35
Vinicius Salvador, 28
Koha Minowa, 25

JULY 25

Seth Kleinbeck, 51
Tiequan Zhang, 46
Tom Niinimaki, 42
Michel Prazeres, 41
Vitaly Bigdash, 40
Eric Wisely, 40
Dean Garnett, 36
Chris Honeycutt, 36
Alex Trinidad, 34
Brendon Raftery, 33
Mehraban Farhadi, 32
Fritz Biagtan, 29

JULY 26

Jeff Blatnick, 1957-2012
Yukio Sakaguchi, 51
Tony DeSouza, 50
Markwayne Mullin, 47
Jacen Flynn, 46
Devin Clark, 36
Anthony Smith, 36
A.J. Agazarm, 35
Mandel Nallo, 35
Mike Wootten, 35
Thomas Gifford, 32
Costello van Steenis, 32

JULY 27

Joe Rodriguez, 47
Drew McFedries, 46
Lauren Murphy, 41
Daniel Straus, 40
Julia Borisova, 39
Rafael Carvalho, 38
Jessica Eye, 38
Macy Chiasson, 33
Akhmed Musakaev, 31
Phumi Nkuta, 29
Na Liang, 28
Tamires Vidal, 26

JULY 28

Brian Johnston, 56
Dana White, 55
Fabiano Iha, 53
Danny Davis Jr., 42
Cain Velasquez, 42
Ilir Latifi, 41
George Pacurariu, 40
Darrell Horcher, 37
Greg Hardy, 36
Gunnar Nelson, 36
Cris Lencioni, 30
Lucas Alexander, 29

JULY 29

Branden Lee Hinkle, 51
Dave Menne, 50
Yoshihiro Akiyama, 49
Jay Hieron, 48
Jacob Noe, 44
Justin Robbins, 44
Steve Bosse, 43
Matt Grice, 43
Travis Perzynski, 36
Kevin Syler, 31
Krystian Kaszubowski, 30
Oskar Szczepaniak, 25

JULY 30

Murilo Bustamante, 58
Kristof Midoux, 52
Josh Haynes, 47
Fabricio Werdum, 47
Marius Zaromskis, 44
Robert Emerson, 43
Steve Lopez, 40
Shane Primm, 40
Anthony Christodoulou, 37
Ali Abdulkhalikov, 31
Devonte Smith, 31
Muhammad Mokaev, 24

JULY 31

Anthony Torres, 46
Wagner Campos, 43
Joseph Benavidez, 40
Edwin Figueroa, 40
Uriah Hall, 40
Dalcha Lungiambula, 39
Julian Erosa, 35
Aljamain Sterling, 35
Daniel Spitz, 34
Thomas Almeida, 33
Reyes Cortez Jr., 32
Shane Young, 31