Even more impressive, DC started mma past his physical prime. It’s been stated many times that a good amount of training injuries in mma come from wrestling. Again, the guy wasn’t playing paddy cake as a world class wrestler. He wasn’t exactly a fresh body coming into mma at 30. At 30 years old, not only are you already a little old to start a new sport, but add the fact that dude had already been wrestling for almost 20 years at that point, he is not exactly a fresh 38 year old fighter.
Nobody said he was "fresh", but his MMA wear and tear (which differs from wrestling wear and tear), was subtantially less than Fedor's and Nogueira's at the same age and that just can't be ignored.
Furthermore wrestling is a great base for MMA and gives fighters tons of advantages compared to someone with a pure striking background. An elite wrestler making the jump to MMA at an older age still has a good chance to be competitive at a high level. Some examples:
-Randy: Started MMA at 34 and he was winning belts in his 40's.
-Henderson started at 27 and he was winning titles in his late 30's (even on TRT, not everybody ages that well)
-Liddell: Started at 29. He peaked around his mid 30's.
-Coleman: Started in his early 30's, peaked around his mid-late 30's.
-Matt Lindland: Started at 27, peaked around his mid 30's.
-Carwin started at 30, peaked around his mid 30's.
On the other hand you have guys starting earlier declining earlier:
-Rampage: Started at 21, far past his prime in his late 30's.
-Rashad started at 25, far past his prime at 38
-Tito: Started at 22, far past prime in his mid-late 30's
-Hughes: Started at 25, past prime in his mid 30's
-Sonnen: Started at 20, past prime in his late 30's
-Hendricks: Started at 24, past prime in his mid 30's
See how often fighters who start in their late 20's or early 30's are still competitive in their mid-late 30's, while fighters who start in their mid-early 20's are often past prime at mid-late 30's?
So is it really surprising that Cormier is competitive in his late 30's, when he started at 30?
Or course this is not a rule. There are a lot of factors to consider such as fight schedules, PED's, injuries, etc. And there are also fighters who have unusual longevity or lack thereof, but usually, it's not rare to see a fighter who started in his 30's to be competitive in his mid or late 30's.
You're suggesting Cormier's is still competitive because of how good he is, but as shown above, his fight age is nothing extraordinary. Not to mention DC has taken plenty of damage already; he's been hurt and knocked down several times already, so if there's anything keeping him on top it's not how good he is skill-wise, but how good his chin is.
Cheers.
Knee injuries, kidney failure, thousands of hours of mat time, hundreds of weight cuts, 13+ years of competition at the highest level. The S&C of elite wrestling is at least as grueling if not more. Less concussions, obviously, but if we're just talking about miles on the body, would be absurd to argue DC came into the sport as some kind of fresh 30 year old.
Post above goes for you as well.