This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Alistair Overeem Turns 40

The path of destruction left by Alistair Overeem during his two decade-long career inspires both awe and wonder. “The Demolition Man” will celebrate his 40th birthday on May 17—a date he shares with Matt Lindland, 50, Cheick Kongo, 45, and Dan Hardy, 38, among others.

Overeem, who made his professional mixed martial arts debut in 1999, has compiled a 45-18 record across various promotions. Known for his prodigious offensive skills, the former Dream and Strikeforce champion has delivered 40 of his 45 career victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission. Overeem boasts 33 first-round finishes on his resume, including eight of the sub-minute variety. The Dutchman has defeated six former Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholders: Fabricio Werdum (twice), Vitor Belfort (twice), Andrei Arlovski, Junior dos Santos, Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar. Overeem also struck gold at the 2005 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling European Championships and won the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix, making him one of the most accomplished athletes in combat sports history.

Others in MMA celebrating birthdays during the month of May:

MAY 1

Kiichi Kunimoto, 39
Nissen Osterneck, 39
Anton Kuivanen, 36
Chad Mendes, 35
Dakota Cochrane, 34
Liz McCarthy, 34
Raoni Barcelos, 33
Anistavio Medeiros de Figueiredo, 32
David Teymur, 31
Jonathan Pearce, 28

MAY 2

Mina Kurobe, 43
Garret Nybakken, 39
Alberto Mina, 38
Tony Johnson , 37
Maxim Grishin, 36
Kikuyo Ishikawa, 36
Alexey Kunchenko, 36
Alex Nicholson, 30
Justin Scoggins, 28
Jarred Brooks, 27

MAY 3

Sam Greco, 53
Shonie Carter, 48
Pedro Rizzo, 46
Bubba McDaniel, 37
John Makdessi, 35
Patrick Holohan, 32
Bryan Barberena, 31
Mikkel Parlo, 30
Mariana Morais, 24
Milos Janicic, 23

MAY 4

Marcus Aurelio, 34
Victor Henry, 33
Caroline Yariwake da Cruz, 33
Nate Williams, 32
Lemmy Krusic, 31
Mike Otwell, 31
Molly McCann, 30
Roman Kopylov, 29
Roman Szymanski, 27
Erin Blanchfield, 21

MAY 5

Alex Schoenauer, 44
Bruce Boyington, 41
Sidemar Honorio, 40
Rob Yundt, 40
Mizuto Hirota, 39
Steve Steinbeiss, 39
Lukasz Bugara, 34
Cortney Casey, 33
Bevon Lewis, 29
Kyle Crutchmer, 27

MAY 6

Haim Gozali, 47
Luiz Jorge Dutra Jr., 38
Brandon Visher, 36
Sam Alvey, 34
Amy Coleman, 34
Akop Stepanyan, 34
Brett Malone, 32
Beneil Dariush, 31
Ysidro Gutierrez, 28
Spike Carlyle, 27

MAY 7

Lodune Sincaid, 1973-2019
Frank Trigg, 48
Ariel Gandulla, 44
Vagner Tiburcio, 43
Kurt Pellegrino, 41
Ian McCall, 36
Kleber Willian Meireles Vilar, 35
Jodie Esquibel, 34
Jonas Flok, 33
Casey Jones, 29

MAY 8

Jorge Patino, 47
Richard Odoms, 45
Caol Uno, 45
Tatsuya Kawajiri, 42
Manny Gamburyan, 39
Jessica Aguilar, 38
Mikey Gomez, 38
Danillo Villefort, 37
Brandon Davis, 30
Julian Marquez, 30

MAY 9

Spencer Fisher, 44
Antwain Britt, 42
Matt Kovacs, 39
Pablo Alfonso, 38
Thiago Meller, 38
Shinya Aoki, 37
Martin Stapleton, 37
Roger Zapata, 34
Chuka Willis, 27
Wyatt Barber, 19

MAY 10

Grzegorz Jakubowski, 50
Anthony Perosh, 48
Dave Lehr Cochran, 47
Yoshiyuki Yoshida, 46
Jackie Vandenburgh, 39
Jake Underwood, 34
Nilton Gaviao, 32
Cory Hendricks, 32
Kalyn Schwartz, 31
Yoshinori Horie, 25

MAY 11

Jeremy Lang, 45
Melvin Manhoef, 44
Magomed Sultanakhmedov, 36
Gilbert Jimenez, 35
Chas Skelly, 35
Joseph Sandoval, 34
Dequan Townsend, 34
Julia Avila, 32
Kamaru Usman, 32
Frankie Perez, 31

MAY 12

Travis Lutter, 47
Louis Taylor, 41
Damian Grabowski, 40
Greg Loughran, 37
Maikel Perez, 37
Keri Melendez, 36
Junie Allen Browning, 35
Mark Cherico, 34
Cameron Dollar, 33
Austin Springer, 33

MAY 13

Fiona Muxlow, 43
Fredson Paixao, 41
Arnaud Lepont, 40
Yan Cabral, 37
Arjan Singh Bhullar, 34
Guilherme Viana, 34
Josh Ferguson, 32
Jai Herbert, 32
Yusuke Yachi, 30
Sergei Pavlovich, 28

MAY 14

Alex Andrade, 46
Urijah Faber, 41
Razak Al-Hassan, 38
Tom DeBlass, 38
Artur Guseinov, 36
Rashid Magomedov, 36
Rizlen Zouak, 34
Tyler Beneke, 30
Alvaro Herrera, 30
Adrian Mattheis, 27

MAY 15

Eddie Bravo, 50
Shane DeZee, 43
Josh Burns, 42
Chad Griggs, 42
Chris de la Rocha, 41
Tom Lawlor, 37
Kenji Yamamoto, 36
Brett Chism, 33
Jessica Middleton, 32
Justin Lawrence, 30

MAY 16

A.J. Lias Mansor, 45
Isidro Gonzalez, 39
Marcelo Barreira, 36
Hacran Dias, 36
Darren Elkins, 36
Gabriel Varga, 35
Anthony Birchak, 34
Nazareno Malegarie, 34
Stephen Martinez, 33
Andre Harrison, 32

MAY 17

Matt Lindland, 50
Cheick Kongo, 45
Alistair Overeem, 40
Dan Hardy, 38
Paul Bradley, 37
Rich Hale, 35
Jeff Hughes, 32
Nolan Ticman, 32
Gillian Robertson, 25
Muin Gafurov, 24

MAY 18

Igor Borisov, 46
Muhsin Corbbrey, 42
Gabriel Gonzaga, 41
Michal Kita, 40
Kazuhisa Watanabe, 37
Jeremy Larsen, 36
Frank Camacho, 31
Hannah Goldy, 28
Jalin Turner, 25
Maycee Barber, 22

MAY 19

Satoshi Honma, 52
Andre Gusmao, 43
Wagner da Conceicao Martins, 42
Georges St. Pierre, 39
John Maguire, 37
Malcolm Gordon, 30
Jamahal Hill, 29
Augusto Sakai, 29
Sergey Khandozhko, 28
Sodiq Yusuff, 27

MAY 20

Steve Berger, 47
Mike Trinh, 45
Roger Carroll, 38
Santino Defranco, 38
Roger Huerta, 37
Alexander Shlemenko, 36
Jinh Yu Frey, 35
Ramazan Emeev, 33
Scott Askham, 32
Andreas Stahl, 32

MAY 21

Bruce Buffer, 63
Scott Smith, 41
Ricardo Lamas, 38
Tim Ruberg, 38
Aung La N Sang, 35
Artur Pronin, 32
Renato Carneiro, 31
Dustin Kimura, 31
Khadis Ibragimov, 25
Kelly McGill-Velasco, 25

MAY 22

Murilo Rua, 40
Tim Snyder, 40
Mark Oshiro, 37
Fumihiro Kitahara, 36
Joe Lauzon, 36
Keita Nakamura, 36
Amanda Lemos, 33
Teemu Packalen, 33
Damien Lapilus, 32
Steve Garcia, 28

MAY 23

Igor Zinoviev, 54
Remco Pardoel, 51
Beau Baker, 41
Aaron Miller, 40
Sean Loeffler, 38
Allison Schmidt, 38
Jordan Dowdy, 34
Myles Price, 32
Cezary Kesik, 30
Nannan He, 29

MAY 24

Paulo Filho, 42
Frank Mir, 41
Alex Serdyukov, 40
Josh Thornburg, 36
Hernani Perpetuo, 35
Calen Born, 32
Yoni Sherbatov, 32
Jonathan Noriega, 29
Emily Whitmire, 29
Joshua Culibao, 26

MAY 25

Ralph Gracie, 49
Cung Le, 48
Brad Blackburn, 43
Alberto Rodriguez, 43
Hudson Rocha, 39
Mark Anthony Serkez, 39
Ulysses Gomez, 37
Dan Lariviere, 37
Scott Askham, 32
Ben Fodor, 32

MAY 26

Brad Kohler, 56
Kenny Florian, 44
Rob McCullough, 43
Joachim Hansen, 41
Mike Maldonado, 37
Lyman Good, 35
Mike Bruno, 34
Jeremy Stephens, 34
Aaron Chalmers, 33
Ricky Steele, 32

MAY 27

Gideon Ray, 47
Kotetsu Boku, 43
Ron Humphrey, 43
Chris Cariaso, 39
Will Campuzano, 34
Diego Brandao, 33
Alex Enlund, 33
Michael Hill, 33
Anthony Leone, 33
Geane Herrera, 30

MAY 28

Rory Singer, 44
Andy Wang, 43
Aaron Rosa, 39
Stephanie Alba, 38
Brian Melancon, 38
Scott Heckman, 36
Marc Stevens, 35
Tina Lahdemaki, 32
Luiz Eduardo Garagorri, 31
Hyder Amil, 30

MAY 29

Matt Andersen, 49
Mike French, 45
Travis Fulton, 43
Mamoru Yamaguchi, 43
Nate James, 42
Georgi Karakhanyan, 35
Guto Inocente, 34
Alex Torres, 32
Steven Peterson, 30
Caio Machado, 27

MAY 30

Lyoto Machida, 42
Antonio Carvalho, 41
Yves Jabouin, 41
Dan Bonnell, 40
Ivan Menjivar, 38
Bart Palaszewski, 37
Derrick Mehmen, 35
Virna Jandiroba, 32
Amanda Nunes, 32
Jesse McElligott, 30

MAY 31

Takashi Sugiura, 50
Brandon Hunt, 47
Koji Oishi, 43
Keitaro Maeda, 40
Akitoshi Tamura, 40
Jesse Peterson, 39
Matt Veach, 39
Maria Rios, 37
Elias Theodorou, 32
Jessin Ayari, 28