This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Jon Jones Turns 30

It has long been said that genius borders on insanity. Perhaps that explains the twists and turns in the career of former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones, who celebrates his 30th birthday on July 19.

The Rochester, New York, native has compiled a stellar 22-1 record since arriving on the mixed martial arts scene a little more than nine years ago, his only defeat the result of a disqualification against Matt Hamill at “The Ultimate Fighter 10” Finale on Dec. 5, 2009. Jones defeated Mauricio Rua by third-round technical knockout in March 2011 to claim the light heavyweight title and become the youngest fighter to ever capture a UFC championship. In the six-plus years since, he has established himself as one of the greatest fighters of all-time with wins over Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen, Alexander Gustafsson, Glover Teixeira, Daniel Cormier and Ovince St. Preux. However, various incidents outside the cage have resulted in his being stripped of his title and losing significant chunks of his career to suspension.

Jones will return from a year-long United States Anti-Doping Agency suspension on July 29, when he faces Cormier for the undisputed light heavyweight championship in the UFC 214 main event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Jones will enter the cage on a 13-fight winning streak.

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

JULY 1

Amar Suloev (1976-2016)
Vener Galiev, 42
Forrest Griffin, 39
Cat Zingano, 35
Ali Yaakub, 33
Karlos Vemola, 32
Norman Paraisy, 31
William Macario, 26

JULY 2

Brad Cardinal, 49
Vinny Magalhaes, 33
Godofredo Castro, 30
Brett Cooper, 30
Hakeem Dawodu, 26

JULY 3

Mike Bencic, 51
Wanderlei Silva, 41
Tommy Depret, 38
Sascha Weinpolter, 31

JULY 4

Dave Vader, 40
Julia Budd, 34
Shamil Zavurov, 33

JULY 5

Kevin Knabjian, 33
Ian McCall, 33
Waqar Umar, 27

JULY 6

Tom Erikson, 53
Masaaki Sugawara, 38
Hans Stringer, 30

JULY 7

Jason Brilz, 42
Pat Barry, 38
Eliot Marshall, 37
Stav Economou, 31
Patricio Freire, 30
Cody Garbrandt, 26

JULY 8

Randy Brown, 27
Jonas Billstein, 26
Angela Lee, 21

JULY 9

Renato Sobral, 42
Tim Credeur, 40
George Sotiropoulos, 40
Gerald Turek, 38
Peter Davis, 36
Cristiane Justino, 32
Ashlee Evans-Smith, 30

JULY 10

Pete Williams, 42
Gleison Tibau, 34
Brock Jardine, 32

JULY 11

Josh Clopton, 36
Brandon Thatch, 32
Kron Gracie, 29

JULY 12

Keiichiro Yamamiya, 45
Brock Lesnar, 40
Carlos Eduardo Rocha, 36
Mitch Whitesel, 36
Cody Pfister, 27

JULY 13

Dave Strasser, 48
Hidehiko Hasegawa, 39
Jonathan Goulet, 38
Tom Watson, 35
Rina Tomita, 33

JULY 14

Kazushi Sakuraba, 48
Mostapha Al-Turk, 44
Falaniko Vitale, 43
Wagnney Fabiano, 42
Rolles Gracie, 39
Leonard Garcia, 38
Shane Roller, 38
Ray Sloan, 32
Alex Garcia, 30
Conor McGregor, 29
Jason Knight, 25
Nicholas Lee, 22

JULY 15

Antony Rea, 41
Matt Mitrione, 39
Viktor Pesta, 27

JULY 16

Javier Vazquez, 40
Toby Imada, 39
Kazuhiro Nakamura, 38
Walel Watson, 33
Lacey Schuckman, 29
Louis Smolka, 26

JULY 17

Alexander Otsuka, 46
Yuki Kondo, 42
Sean McCorkle, 41
Ricardo Arona, 39
Mamed Khalidov, 37
Travis Browne, 35
Saul Elizondo, 32
Mike Byrnes, 27

JULY 18

Crosley Gracie, 38
Hatsu Hioki, 34
Ben Askren, 33
Alexander Yakovlev, 33

JULY 19

Jeremiah Constant, 43
Raphael Assuncao, 35
Alan Patrick Silva Alves, 34
Elvis Mutapcic, 31
Hector Sandoval, 31
Jon Jones, 30

JULY 20

Aaron Simpson, 43
Pat Healy, 34
Ryan Healy, 34
Gilbert Burns, 31

JULY 21

Chris Leben, 37
Yushin Okami, 36
Antonio dos Santos Jr., 29
Filip Pejic, 25

JULY 22

Carlos Barreto, 49
Adrienna Jenkins, 36
Mark Hominick, 35
Eddie Gordon, 34
Cain Carrizosa, 31
Rory MacDonald, 28

JULY 23

Guram Gugenishvili (1987-2014)
Georgy Kaysinov, 46
Akira Kikuchi, 39
Sergio Moraes, 35
LeVon Maynard, 34
Chad Laprise, 31
Marcus Vanttinen, 30
Teruto Ishihara, 26

JULY 24

Jason DeLucia, 48
Takahiro Kajita, 41
Nathan Coy, 39
Mike Lullo, 38
Tim Carpenter, 37
Josh Sampo, 33
Julian Lane, 30

JULY 25

Tiequan Zhang, 39
Michel Prazeres, 34
Chris Honeycutt, 29

JULY 26

Jeff Blatnick (1957-2012)
Yukio Sakaguchi, 44
Anthony Smith, 29

JULY 27

Drew McFedries, 39
Lauren Murphy, 34
Daniel Straus, 33
Julia Borisova, 32
Rafael Carvalho, 31
Jessica Eye, 31

JULY 28

Dana White, 48
Danny Davis Jr., 35
Cain Velasquez, 35
Ilir Latifi, 34
George Pacurariu, 33
Darrell Horcher, 30
Gunnar Nelson, 29

JULY 29

Dave Menne, 43
Yoshihiro Akiyama, 43
Jay Hieron, 41
Steve Bosse, 36
Matt Grice, 36

JULY 30

Murilo Bustamante, 51
Fabricio Werdum, 40
Marius Zaromskis, 37
Robert Emerson, 36
Anthony Christodoulou, 30

JULY 31

Jim Theobald, 40
Tito Jones, 36
Joseph Benavidez, 33
Uriah Hall, 33
Julian Erosa, 28
Aljamain Sterling, 28
Thomas Almeida, 26