This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Mirko Filipovic Turns 50

The mere mention of his name still inspires awe and reverence from those who were fortunate enough to witness his exploits firsthand. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic turns 50 on Sept. 10.

Filipovic debuted in 2001 and soon after rose to prominence in Pride Fighting Championships, where his signature left high kick made him a permanent fixture on highlight reels. During his stay in the Japanese organization, he twice fought for the heavyweight title, won the 2006 Pride open weight grand prix and subdued a long line of contemporaries: Josh Barnett (three times), Wanderlei Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Hidehiko Yoshida. Filipovic’s blockbuster battle with Fedor Emelianenko on Aug. 28, 2005—he lost by unanimous decision before a crowd of 47,629 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan—was easily the most anticipated heavyweight fight in mixed martial arts history. “Cro Cop” brought his talents to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2007 but never lived up to the hype that preceded his arrival. He went on to enjoy a late-career resurgence and rattled off 10 consecutive victories, nine of them finishes, before a stroke forced him to retire following a unanimous decision over Roy Nelson under the Bellator MMA banner in February 2019.

Those in MMA celebrating a birthday during the month of September:

SEPT. 1

Raphael Davis, 48
Timothy Woods, 48
Tim Kennedy, 45
Mike Pierce, 44
Nick Catone, 43
Mikhail Malyutin, 43
D.J. Linderman, 41
Henrique da Silva, 35
Carl Seumanutafa, 35
Fatkhidin Sobirov, 31
Peter Danesoe, 24
Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu, 21

SEPT. 2

Steve Gable, 48
Jeff Curran, 47
Shamil Abdurakhimov, 43
Alessio Sakara, 43
Jake Rosholt, 43
Sean O'Connell, 41
Anthony Durnell, 40
Enrique Marin, 38
Cathal Pendred, 37
Alejandro Perez, 35
Abusupiyan Magomedov, 34
Halil Amir, 30

SEPT. 3

Hidehiko Yoshida, 55
Leo Sylvest, 51
Alexandru Lungu, 50
Brian Cobb, 44
Rene Nazare, 42
Ousmane Thomas Diagne, 41
Daniel Jolly, 40
Dominick Cruz, 39
Robert Morrow, 39
Lorenz Larkin, 38
Jordan Heiderman, 33
Eduardo Dutra, 20

SEPT. 4

Jason David Frank, 1973-2022
Bao Quach, 45
Katy Collins, 37
Rhalan Gracie, 37
Isabela de Padua, 33
Kevin Lee, 32
Humberto Bandenay, 30
Kyra Batara, 30
Stanislav Nanaev, 30
Nicolae Negumereanu, 30
Youssef Zalal, 28
Biaggio Ali Walsh, 26

SEPT. 5

Emmanuel Yarborough, 1960-2015
Tim Hague, 1983-2017
James Brasco, 52
Rob MacDonald, 46
Gray Maynard, 45
Jacob Volkmann, 44
Francis Ngannou, 38
Raquel Pennington, 36
Genah Fabian, 35
Antun Racic, 34
Victor Rodriguez, 32
Werlleson Martins, 29

SEPT. 6

Antonio Graceffo, 57
Masatoshi Abe, 48
Thales Leites, 43
Claudio Silva, 42
Callan Potter, 40
Lynn Alvarez, 39
Handerson Martins, 39
Tarec Saffiedine, 38
Jared Gordon, 35
Jonny Parsons, 33
Lupita Godinez, 31
Michael Stack, 30

SEPT. 7

Patrick Williams, 43
Alan Carlos, 41
Ian Loveland, 41
Pedro Munhoz, 38
Yancy Medeiros, 37
Kevin Aguilar, 36
Joey Elzea, 35
Reinier de Ridder, 34
Artem Frolov, 33
Larissa Pacheco, 30
Javid Basharat, 29
Evelyn Martins, 22

SEPT. 8

John Halverson, 52
Rubens Xavier, 50
Mike Thomas Brown, 49
Chris Tuchscherer, 49
Yasuhiro Urushitani, 48
Kurt Holobaugh, 38
Christian Morecraft, 38
Chris Dempsey, 37
Will Chope, 34
Maryna Moroz, 33
Logan Storley, 32
Cody Haddon, 26

SEPT. 9

Don Richards, 50
Ailton Barbosa, 48
Roger Narvaez, 41
Harris Sarmiento, 41
Jose Aldo, 38
Bobby Green, 38
Kyung Ho Kang, 37
Dong Hyun Ma, 36
Kristina Williams, 35
Yaroslav Amosov, 31
Payton Talbott, 26
Jean Matsumoto, 25

SEPT. 10

Masahiko Kimura, 1917-1993
Sanae Kikuta, 53
Roman Zentsov, 51
Mirko Filipovic, 50
Naoya Uematsu, 46
Cully Butterfield, 35
Mark Martin, 31
Rhys McKee, 29
Jack Della Maddalena, 28
Jakub Wiklacz, 28
Andrey Pulyaev, 27
Jung Hyun Lee, 22

SEPT. 11

Dennis Reed, 57
Chance Farrar, 49
Johnny Sampaio, 49
Andre Winner, 43
Eric Bedard, 40
Cody Gibson, 37
Te Edwards, 34
Allan Nascimento, 33
Robert Hale, 32
Jamey Simmons, 32
Jia Wen Ma, 28
Felipe dos Santos, 24

SEPT. 12

Yuki Sasaki, 48
James Irvin, 46
Ray Steinbeiss, 45
Stanislav Nedkov, 43
Mario Rinaldi, 42
Johny Hendricks, 41
Junior dos Santos, 40
Paul Kelly, 40
Rani Yahya, 40
Garry Tonon, 33
Bogdan Guskov, 32
Youcef Ouabbas, 27

SEPT. 13

Yuri Vaulin, 61
Christian Wellisch, 49
Igor Almeida, 45
Marcus Sursa, 42
Ronald LeBreton Jr., 39
Andy Uhrich, 39
Juan Archuleta, 37
Zach Fears, 36
Tommy Espinosa, 32
Elias Garcia, 32
Evgeniy Morozov, 27
Chase Hooper, 25

SEPT. 14

Antonio Silva, 45
Chris Lozano, 42
Adrian Miles, 41
Dwight Grant, 40
Alexey Stoyan, 40
Mauro Chaulet, 36
Alan Omer, 36
Yuki Motoya, 35
Jose Alday, 33
Gaston Bolanos, 32
Chris Padilla, 29
Melquizael Costa, 28

SEPT. 15

John Marsh, 54
Rick Hawn, 48
Fernando Gonzalez, 41
Kaitlin Young, 39
Jesse Gross, 37
Mike Wilkinson, 37
Horacio Gutierrez, 34
Mike Perry, 33
Marcelo Golm, 32
Alexey Polpudnikov, 32
Delan Monte, 31
Terrance McKinney, 30

SEPT. 16

Roberto Traven, 56
Nobutatsu Suzuki, 47
Pablo Garza, 41
Brandon Halsey, 38
Lucas Montoya, 38
Darius Estell, 36
Ariel Beck, 34
Luis Vargas, 33
Jeremy Kennedy, 32
Wei Xie, 28
Maria Laura Alves Fontoura, 24
Jordan Zebo, 24

SEPT. 17

Michael Guymon, 50
Karl Etherington, 49
Denis Kang, 47
Scott Jorgensen, 42
Hisaki Kato, 42
Sultan Aliev, 40
Sean Holden, 40
Hector Urbina, 37
Loik Radzhabov, 34
Reece McLaren, 33
Tyson Pedro, 33
Joe Pyfer, 28

SEPT. 18

Yuji Hisamatsu, 53
Ryuta Sakurai, 53
Mike Pyle, 49
Abel Trujillo, 41
Felice Herrig, 40
Ashkan Mokhtarian, 39
Tyra Parker, 35
Aren Akopyan, 31
Aleksander Podmarev, 30
Tiani Valle, 30
Ryan Hoover, 26
Dawid Kuczmarski, 22

SEPT. 19

Yoshihiro Takayama, 58
Mark Weir, 57
Heather Clark, 44
Jeremy Jackson, 42
Leandro Issa, 41
Matt Wiman, 41
Lewis Gonzalez, 37
Volkan Oezdemir, 35
Sinjen Smith, 32
Claire Guthrie, 29
Vitor Ferreira Costa, 24
Juan Pablo Vieira, 21

SEPT. 20

Ryan Jensen, 47
Alex Karalexis, 47
Eric Schafer, 47
Quinn Mulhern, 40
Sarah Kaufman, 39
Khabib Nurmagomedov, 36
Aalon Cruz, 35
George Garcia, 34
Mansour Barnaoui, 32
Marvin Vettori, 31
Svetlana Gotsyk, 28
Riku Yoshida, 24

SEPT. 21

Ronald Jhun, 54
Mario Miranda, 46
Josh Thomson, 46
Gael Grimaud, 45
Bianca Daimoni, 38
Andrei Koshkin, 34
Martin Bravo, 31
Bryan Battle, 30
Ty Gwerder, 30
Junior Tafa, 28
Akbar Abdullaev, 27
Ali Taleb, 27

SEPT. 22

Bob Sapp, 51
Forrest Petz, 49
Takanori Gomi, 46
Fredy Serrano, 45
Shamar Bailey, 42
Bruno Menezes, 39
Chuck O'Neil, 39
Mike de la Torre, 38
Elias Silverio, 38
Vanessa Demopoulos, 36
Corey Anderson, 35
Bailey Schoenfelder, 27

SEPT. 23

Shane del Rosario, 1983-2013
Eugene Jackson, 58
Jason Lambert, 47
Makoto Maeda, 47
Maro Perak, 42
Joe Riggs, 42
Mark O. Madsen, 40
Salamu Abdurahmanov, 32
Kyle Driscoll, 31
Carlos Marques, 30
Aaron Pico, 28
Imran Zhulagov, 27

SEPT. 24

Cristian Binda, 47
Brad Pickett, 46
Sara McMann, 44
Brian Stann, 44
Kris McCray, 43
Roxanne Modafferi, 42
Jose Andres Cortes, 40
Dan Charles, 39
Adam McDonough, 39
Chris Horodecki, 37
Dzhokhar Doshuev, 29
Ismail Kelemetov, 23

SEPT. 25

Todd Gouwenberg, 50
Olavo Belo, 45
Rashad Evans, 45
Allan Weickert, 43
Phil Davis, 40
Jake O'Brien, 40
Chris Daukaus, 35
Honorio Banario, 35
Rodolfo Vieira, 35
Jessica Andrade, 33
Aleksa Camur, 29
Bernardo Sopai, 24

SEPT. 26

Shinobu Aoyama, 51
David Branch, 43
Roger Gracie, 43
Hugo Viana, 42
Martin Zawada, 41
John Dodson, 40
Ross Pearson, 40
Nick Urso, 39
Santiago Ponzinibbio, 38
Dileno Lopes, 37
Tom Breese, 33
Stav Koren, 24

SEPT. 27

Shannon Ritch, 54
Thiago Jambo Goncalves, 44
Karol Bedorf, 41
Sasa Mitrovic, 39
Josh Bacallao, 36
Herman Terrado, 35
Zebaztian Kadestam, 34
Islam Makhachev, 33
Karl Albrektsson, 31
Max Rohskopf, 30
Michael Aswell, 24
An Tuan Ho, 24

SEPT. 28

Mario Sperry, 58
Fedor Emelianenko, 48
Din Thomas, 48
Jeremy Mahon, 45
Eduardo Felipe , 44
Sam Morgan, 43
Justin Ledet, 36
Anthony Gutierrez, 34
Rinat Fakhretdinov, 33
Tony Gravely, 33
Janay Harding, 30
Danny Kingad, 29

SEPT. 29

Jason Riley, 44
James Te Huna, 43
Andre Galvao , 42
Che Mills, 42
Eric Spicely, 38
Alexander Volkanovski, 36
Evgeny Bondar, 35
Niko Price, 35
Asa Ten Pow, 35
Ben Parrish, 32
Collin Huckbody, 30
Joselyne Edwards, 29

SEPT. 30

Herb Dean, 54
Yves Edwards, 48
Latoya Walker, 45
Damacio Page, 42
Scott Holtzman, 41
Neal Ewing, 39
Chris Wade, 37
Natan Levy, 33
Bobby Pallett, 33
Brad Riddell, 33
Diego Silva, 31
Sylwia Juskiewicz, 30