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This Month’s MMA Birthdays: Murilo Bustamante Turns 50


Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder and Brazilian Top Team co-founder Murilo Bustamante will go down in the annals as one of the most underappreciated and influential figures of MMA’s formative years. Bustamante will celebrate his 50th birthday on July 30.

A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under the late Carlson Gracie, Bustamante made his UFC debut in April 2000 with a second-round arm-triangle choke submission on Yoji Anjo. A little less than two years later, he captured the middleweight championship by stopping Dave Menne with second-round punches at UFC 35 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Bustamante made one successful defense -- he guillotined Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland on May 10, 2002 -- before vacating the title to sign with Pride Fighting Championships. He compiled a 4-5 record in the Japanese organization, reaching the final of the 2005 Pride welterweight grand prix, where he lost a split decision to Dan Henderson.

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While Bustamante has never officially announced his retirement, he made what amounts to his final appearance at an Amazon Forest Combat event on March 31, 2012. There, the Brazilian took a unanimous decision in his rematch with Menne.

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

JULY 1

Amar Suloev (1976-2016)
Vener Galiev (41)
Forrest Griffin (37)
Cat Zingano (34)
Ali Yaakub (32)
Karlos Vemola (31)
Norman Paraisy (30)
William Macario (25)

JULY 2

Brad Cardinal (48)
Vinny Magalhaes (32)
Godofredo Castro (29)
Brett Cooper (29)
Hakeem Dawodu (25)

JULY 3

Mike Bencic (50)
Wanderlei Silva (40)
Tommy Depret (37)
Sascha Weinpolter (30)

JULY 4

Dave Vader (39)
Julia Budd (33)
Shamil Zavurov (32)

JULY 5

Kevin Knabjian (32)
Ian McCall (32)
Waqar Umar (26)

JULY 6

Tom Erikson (52)
Masaaki Sugawara (37)
Hans Stringer (29)

JULY 7

Jason Brilz (41)
Pat Barry (37)
Eliot Marshall (36)
Stav Economou (30)
Patricio Freire (29)
Cody Garbrandt (25)

JULY 8

Randy Brown (26)
Angela Lee (20)

JULY 9

Renato Sobral (41)
Tim Credeur (39)
George Sotiropoulos (39)
Gerald Turek (37)
Peter Davis (35)
Cristiane Justino (31)
Ashlee Evans-Smith (29)

JULY 10

Pete Williams (41)
Gleison Tibau (33)
Brock Jardine (31)

JULY 11

Josh Clopton (35)
Brandon Thatch (31)

JULY 12

Keiichiro Yamamiya (44)
Brock Lesnar (39)
Carlos Eduardo Rocha (35)
Mitch Whitesel (35)
Cody Pfister (26)

JULY 13

Dave Strasser (47)
Hidehiko Hasegawa (38)
Jonathan Goulet (37)
Tom Watson (34)
Rina Tomita (32)

JULY 14

Kazushi Sakuraba (47)
Mostapha Al-Turk (43)
Falaniko Vitale (42)
Wagnney Fabiano (41)
Rolles Gracie (38)
Leonard Garcia (37)
Shane Roller (37)
Ray Sloan (31)
Alex Garcia (29)
Conor McGregor (28)
Nicholas Lee (21)

JULY 15

Antony Rea (40)
Matt Mitrione (38)
Viktor Pesta (26)

JULY 16

Javier Vazquez (39)
Toby Imada (38)
Kazuhiro Nakamura (37)
Walel Watson (32)
Lacey Schuckman (28)

JULY 17

Alexander Otsuka (45)
Yuki Kondo (41)
Sean McCorkle (40)
Ricardo Arona (38)
Mamed Khalidov (36)
Travis Browne (34)
Saul Elizondo (31)
Mike Byrnes (26)

JULY 18

Crosley Gracie (37)
Hatsu Hioki (33)
Ben Askren (32)
Alexander Yakovlev (32)

JULY 19

Jeremiah Constant (42)
Raphael Assuncao (34)
Alan Patrick Silva Alves (33)
Elvis Mutapcic (30)
Jon Jones (29)

JULY 20

Aaron Simpson (42)
Pat Healy (33)
Ryan Healy (33)
Gilbert Burns (30)

JULY 21

Chris Leben (36)
Yushin Okami (35)
Antonio Dos Santos Jr. (28)
Filip Pejic (24)

JULY 22

Carlos Barreto (48)
Adrienna Jenkins (35)
Mark Hominick (34)
Eddie Gordon (33)
Cain Carrizosa (30)
Rory MacDonald (27)

JULY 23

Guram Gugenishvili (1987-2014)
Georgy Kaysinov (45)
Akira Kikuchi (38)
Sergio Moraes (34)
LeVon Maynard (33)
Chad Laprise (30)
Marcus Vanttinen (29)
Teruto Ishihara (25)

JULY 24

Jason DeLucia (47)
Takahiro Kajita (40)
Nathan Coy (38)
Mike Lullo (37)
Tim Carpenter (36)
Josh Sampo (32)
Julian Lane (29)

JULY 25

Tiequan Zhang (38)
Michel Richard Cunha dos Prazeres (33)
Chris Honeycutt (28)

JULY 26

Yukio Sakaguchi (43)
Anthony Smith (28)

JULY 27

Drew McFedries (38)
Lauren Murphy (33)
Daniel Straus (32)
Julia Borisova (31)
Rafael Carvalho (30)
Jessica Eye (30)

JULY 28

Dana White (47)
Danny Davis Jr. (34)
Cain Velasquez (34)
Ilir Latifi (33)
George Pacurariu (32)
Darrell Horcher (29)
Gunnar Nelson (28)

JULY 29

Dave Menne (42)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (41)
Jay Hieron (40)
Steve Bosse (35)
Matt Grice (35)

JULY 30

Murilo Bustamante (50)
Fabricio Werdum (39)
Marius Zaromskis (36)
Robert Emerson (35)
Anthony Christodoulou (29)

JULY 31

Jim Theobald (39)
Tito Jones (35)
Joseph Benavidez (32)
Uriah Hall (32)
Julian Erosa (27)
Aljamain Sterling (27)
Thomas Almeida (25)
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