This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Kenny Florian Turns 40

Brian KnappMay 01, 2016

One of two men -- Diego Sanchez is the other -- in Ultimate Fighting Championship history to compete in four different weight classes, Kenny Florian saw action inside the Octagon as a featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight. Florian will celebrate his 40th birthday on May 26.

A Westwood, Massachusetts, native born to Peruvian parents, “KenFlo” reached the final on Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series before bowing out of the tournament in a technical knockout loss to the aforementioned Sanchez. He went on to fight for UFC championships on three different occasions, losing to Sean Sherk and B.J. Penn at 155 pounds and Jose Aldo at 145 pounds. Florian compiled a 12-5 record in the UFC, besting a variety of opponents, from Clay Guida, Takanori Gomi and Joe Lauzon to Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta, Din Thomas and Sam Stout.

Florian retired following his five-round unanimous decision defeat to Aldo at UFC 136 on Oct. 8, 2011 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

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

MAY 1

Kiichi Kunimoto (35)
Chad Mendes (31)
Dakota Cochrane (30)
Liz McCarthy (30)
Anistavio Medeiros de Figueiredo (28)

MAY 2

Garret Nybakken (35)
Kikuyo Ishikawa (32)
Justin Scoggins (24)

MAY 3

Sam Greco (49)
Shonie Carter (44)
Pedro Rizzo (42)
John Makdessi (31)
Patrick Holohan (28)
Bryan Barberena (27)
Mariana Morais (20)

MAY 5

Alex Schoenauer (40)
Mizuto Hirota (35)
Steve Steinbeiss (35)
Lukasz Bugara (30)
Cortney Casey (29)

MAY 6

Luiz Jorge Dutra Jr. (34)
Sam Alvey (30)
Beneil Dariush (27)

MAY 7

Frank Trigg (44)
Kurt Pellegrino (37)

MAY 8

Jorge Patino (43)
Caol Uno (41)
Tatsuya Kawajiri (38)
Manny Gamburyan (35)
Jesse Juarez (35)
Jessica Aguilar (34)
Mikey Gomez (34)
Danillo Villefort (33)

MAY 9

Spencer Fisher (40)
Antwain Britt (38)
Shinya Aoki (33)
Chuka Willis (23)

MAY 10

Anthony Perosh (44)

MAY 11

Jeremy Lang (41)
Melvin Manhoef (40)
Magomed Sultanakhmedov (32)
Gilbert Jimenez (31)
Chas Skelly (31)
Joseph Sandoval (30)
Frankie Perez (27)

MAY 12

Damian Grabowski (36)

MAY 13

Fredson Paixao (37)
Guilherme Viana (30)
Yusuke Yachi (26)

MAY 14

Urijah Faber (37)
Tom DeBlass (34)
Artur Guseinov (32)
Alvaro Herrera (26)

MAY 15

Shane DeZee (39)
Josh Burns (38)
Tom Lawlor (33)
Kenji Yamamoto (32)
Brett Chism (29)

MAY 16

Hacran Dias (32)
Darren Elkins (32)
Anthony Birchak (30)
Nazareno Malegarie (30)

MAY 17

Matt Lindland (46)
Cheick Kongo (41)
Alistair Overeem (36)
Dan Hardy (34)
Paul Bradley (33)
Rich Hale (31)

MAY 18

Gabriel Gonzaga (37)
Kazuhisa Watanabe (33)

MAY 19

Andre Gusmao (39)
Wagner da Conceicao Martins (38)
Georges St. Pierre (35)
John Maguire (33)
Sergey Khandozhko (24)

MAY 20

Steve Berger (43)
Alexander Shlemenko (32)
Jinh Yu Frey (31)

MAY 21

Bruce Buffer (59)
Ricardo Lamas (34)

MAY 22

Murilo Rua (36)
Tim Snyder (36)
Mark Oshiro (33)
Fumihiro Kitahara (32)
Joe Lauzon (32)
Keita Nakamura (32)
Teemu Packalen (29)
Steve Garcia (24)

MAY 23

Beau Baker (37)

MAY 24

Paulo Filho (38)
Frank Mir (37)
Alex Serdyukov (36)
Josh Thornburg (32)

MAY 25

Brad Blackburn (39)
Hudson Rocha (35)
Mark Anthony Serkez (35)
Ulysses Gomez (33)
Dan Lariviere (33)
Scott Askham (28)
Ben Fodor (28)

MAY 26

Kenny Florian (40)
Rob McCullough (39)
Lyman Good (31)
Jeremy Stephens (30)

MAY 27

Gideon Ray (43)
Chris Cariaso (35)
Will Campuzano (30)
Diego Brandao (29)
Michael Hill (29)
Anthony Leone (29)
Geane Herrera (26)

MAY 28

Aaron Rosa (35)
Scott Heckman (32)

MAY 29

Travis Fulton (39)
Mamoru Yamaguchi (39)
Georgi Karakhanyan (31)
Steven Peterson (26)

MAY 30

Lyoto Machida (38)
Yves Jabouin (37)
Ivan Menjivar (34)
Bart Palaszewski (33)
Amanda Nunes (28)

MAY 31

Akitoshi Tamura (36)
Maria Rios (33)
Elias Theodorou (28)