Is Mid 30s really that old in the MMA world?

[Mystic Mac Miller]

I was watching an interview with DC, Chael, and Brett Okamoto and DC kept harping on how it will be a foolish choice for Jones to fight Aspinal or Pavlovich due to their age. Apparently, despite being in their early 30s, Pav and Aspinal are "young dogs" but Jones is old?

I did not get it.

 

[HHJ]

Its easy. Jones started fighting at a high level at a young age,and hes all used up now and ready for retirement.

Pav and Aspinal,not so much!

 

[Simple Southerner]

Yes

 

[HHJ]

MMA is very hard on the entire body. Different than boxing or kickboxing.

 

[Bobby00]

Its not just age its wear and tear, injuries it all adds up. Jones has been around for a while.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Lower weight classes yes, upper not as much

 

[Benoitthegr8]

High mileage wars against elite level fighters, dudes been in like 10/ 5 rounds fights

 

[JustBreed]

Yes, shit happens fast in your 30s. Early 30s = prime, mid 30s = falling off a cliff performance wise

 

[Neck&Neck]

It’s all about the motion and the ocean
Age ain’t nothing

 

[IneedSometop]

It seems like as you go up in the weight classes you have a little more leeway with age but I think at 170 and below no one over 35 has ever won a title fight or something close to that.

 

[SakurabasEar]

Not if they started later on, but if you'd been fighting since your late teens I think 35 is up there

 

[dog y]

Yes

 

[Kohelet]

yes, usually at the age of 33 the sprinting is no longer the same which point on speed and strenght
but it seems that in high weight classes fighters can fight and succeed beyound 35

 

[MileHigher]

Lots of mileage on JJ. You only have so many fights in you. He’s been doing this for a long time.

 

[IneedSometop]

Lots of mileage on JJ. You only have so many fights in you. He’s been doing this for a long time.

One thing going for Jon as far as mileage goes is the fact that he's had a few 1+ year layoffs and only one knockdown drag out war

 

[Gilday]

Generally no, but you have to consider Jones became Champion when he was 23. The guy has been in the UFC for 15 years now. Mid 30's in the higher weights is honestly probably your peak, but Jones has been at such a high level for 12 years now he's absolutely already past his best.

For comparison of what other mid 30's fighters were doing when Jones was making his UFC debut, Volkanovski who is only a year younger didn't even make his MMA debut until 2012, Israel Adesanya hadn't debuted in kickboxing, Kamaru Usman was winning bronze in D2 wrestling.

 

[Poatan Power]

Yes. In the 34-36 range life hits you like a ton of bricks.

Take note of when every UFC fighter falls out of title contention/starts losing skids. It's almost exclusively after the age of 34, and certainly 35, 36, etc., with very very very few exceptions.

I'm 36 now. At 32-33 I scoffed at competing in the master's division of BJJ tournaments or my age bracket of MT tournaments, when applicable.

Now I get a headache just thinking about competing with a 22 year old fresh out of college wrestling in a tournament who will heal from me heel hooking him in 6 hours and be back on the mats, but if he gets top side control on me my ribs will hurt for a month.

 

[Johnnny]

Fedor lost 3 straight in his early 30s.

 

[lefthighkick01]

Yes. In the 34-36 range life hits you like a ton of bricks.

Take note of when every UFC fighter falls out of title contention/starts losing skids. It's almost exclusively after the age of 34, and certainly 35, 36, etc., with very very very few exceptions.

I'm 36 now. At 32-33 I scoffed at competing in the master's division of BJJ tournaments or my age bracket of MT tournaments, when applicable.

Now I get a headache just thinking about competing with a 22 year old fresh out of college wrestling in a tournament who will heal from me heel hooking him in 6 hours and be back on the mats, but if he gets top side control on me my ribs will hurt for a month.

Just talking about myself with body building , when I hit 35 I noticed I started getting injured, and you cant recover as quickly.. it seems to be when men start to lose their athletic peak around the 34-36, maybe not alot but when you are competing in the highest level of a sport, a very slight drop in performance can be very noticable

 

[Ibm]

No, its still prime if youre taking care of yourself. Milage is whats important but that can be high at 25 if youve been in 100 fights,