This Week’s MMA Birthdays: Matt Serra Turns 40

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titleholder Matt Serra will celebrate his 40th birthday on June 2.

Serra compiled a 7-7 record in the UFC. However, he won Season 4 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series and then authored one of the sport’s greatest upsets at UFC 69 in April 2007, when he stopped Georges St. Pierre on first-round punches and captured the welterweight championship at the Toyota Center in Houston. He later founded the Serra-Longo Fight Team, along with striking guru Ray Longo, and today serves as the head trainer for reigning UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, “The Ultimate Fighter 15” finalist Al Iaquinta and undefeated bantamweight prospect Aljamain Sterling. An East Meadow, N.Y., native, Serra was the first American to achieve the rank of black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Renzo Gracie.

“The Terror” last appeared at UFC 119 a little less than four years ago, when he wound up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision against Chris Lytle at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Serra announced his retirement from MMA on May 22, 2013.

Those in MMA celebrating a birthday during the week covering June 1-June 7:

JUNE 1

Miodrag Petkovic (45)
Michael Buchkovich (37)
Patricky Freire (28)

JUNE 2

Chris Haseman (45)
Matt Serra (40)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (38)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (38)
Christian M’Pumbu (37)
Roan Carneiro (36)
Tatsuya Mizuno (33)
Christopher Wing (26)

JUNE 3

Jason MacDonald (39)

JUNE 4

Michael Johnson (28)
James Krause (28)

JUNE 5

Brian Warren (40)

JUNE 6

Anthony Lemon (23)

JUNE 7

Chris Wilson (37)
Ryan Bader (31)
Michael Kuiper (25)
Mark Burns (23)