At what age can we more or less agree you start to decline at?

[punkoo]

fighting is a weird sport . you see 40 years old man beat up a man is his late 20. Glover Teixeira is that man!

 

[IloveTHIS]

That's true. FEDOR was done at 33. But he already had a 10+ year career and was in WARS. But his chin, reaction time, speed, all thing crucial went out the window. I mean fedor fought giants. Sometimes literal. He was not a big heavyweight. That took a huge toll on him. Shit even a past his prime fedor is still fast as shit. It's just the mileage man. You dont fight guys like Semmy Shilt, Heath Herring, Big Nog etc and not expect for it to NOT to take a piece out of you

What a lot of people dont know or keep in mind is that Fedor has/had over a decade in combat sambo at the exact same time.

2 combat sports for over a decade. Intense wear and tear

 

[New Yorkido]

Fighting professionally wise and in each division? I obviously think the heavier divisions allow for more longevity. Reason I bring this up, guys like Joe Benevidez who fight at 125 pounds, hes 36. Those lighter weight classes is a young mans game. Even at 155 with Tony Ferguson. Hes not the same. I think on average 35 is the age you gotta hang it up. LHW and HW you can fight into your 40s. Glover, Randy, Reem, etc. Even Anderson at 35 was still in his prime at MW. But that was during the steroid era. That changes everything. Just curious.

at a "Jeezus" age of 33.... with standard deviation of 2. You look at many top fighters win streak ending around 32-35 year of age. I checked Fedor's, Machida, CroCop, Noguiera, Werdum, Shogun, and few others for that matter. Now there are some "freaks of nature" that regain strength or continue past 35, but there aren't too many.... Glover Texeira, The Soldier of God, etc

 

[grimballer]

I think in terms of most sports it's much earlier than that.

yeah, youger guys will definitely kick your ass in terms of cardio, endurance, reaction time...

the only thing older guys have is experience and strength

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

There is a solid point to be made about mileage, but it is overly emphasized in MMA imo, probably because the insane training style of gyms like Chute Boxe and Miletich wore guys down early. But even there, we see Wanderlei and Shogun competing at a high level for a very long time. Where mileage matters a lot is knee injuries and the accumulation of other lesser injuries.

Age matters a lot, especially when a fighter's style is reliant on speed and reflexes. Pretty much everyone slows down by their mid thirties, and this can sometimes be already be noticeable in the early thirties.

What allows some fighters in MMA to blossom late is the inherent difficulty in putting multiple fighting disciplines together into one integral whole. Veterans may have lost a step athletically, but they've finally put it all together to where the totality of their skill has become greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[Kvothe_the_kingkiller]

Some guys have a style that works well in older age. It's usually down to fundamentals when speed and reflexes are gone. Then it can be hard to tell if a fighter is really declining. On avg tho mid 30s is usually when you start to see a drop off.

Agreed. It's like baseball pitchers, but more so.

(If you, dear reader, don't know shit about baseball and are offended that my metaphor assumes you do, tell me your sport and I'll try to find another one.)

 

[grimballer]

Lebron is still getting it done at 36, going to be 37 later this year. Baseball has a lot of dudes around that age getting it done. Football, its positional. In NFL sometimes at 33-34 you are done. But look at tom brady at 43. It all depends

alot of that has to do with better s/c and diets top athletes have today.

look at ronaldo in soccer, federer in tennis, brady in football...

all those guys are defying the conventional wisdom when athletes start to decline.

on the other hand if your s/c coach is your typical gym meathead and makes you do stuff like this

your career will be cut short

 

[VAfan]

no easy answer there. fight miles has a ton to do with it obviously. then there's the division, HWs can stick around a lot longer than the little guys. personal fight style as well, whether it's striking intensive or ground etc. way too many variables.

but i agree with the above (35 or so), mid to late thirties is when your speed is going to start to come down considerably.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Fighting professionally wise and in each division? I obviously think the heavier divisions allow for more longevity. Reason I bring this up, guys like Joe Benevidez who fight at 125 pounds, hes 36. Those lighter weight classes is a young mans game. Even at 155 with Tony Ferguson. Hes not the same. I think on average 35 is the age you gotta hang it up. LHW and HW you can fight into your 40s. Glover, Randy, Reem, etc. Even Anderson at 35 was still in his prime at MW. But that was during the steroid era. That changes everything. Just curious.

As a few have said it’s all about mileage. Think of it like this. Today Jose Aldo is the same age Yoel Romero was when he made his ufc debut. I’ve said it many times, but it’s a fact that demonstrates that mileage, sparing, taking damage are all very real limitations

 

[SHAZAM]

There is no age. It's mileage and by weight class. Too hard to put a # on it. You need different #s for different weight classes.

 

[kflo]

That's true. FEDOR was done at 33. But he already had a 10+ year career and was in WARS. But his chin, reaction time, speed, all thing crucial went out the window. I mean fedor fought giants. Sometimes literal. He was not a big heavyweight. That took a huge toll on him. Shit even a past his prime fedor is still fast as shit. It's just the mileage man. You dont fight guys like Semmy Shilt, Heath Herring, Big Nog etc and not expect for it to NOT to take a piece out of you

with fedor it wasn't just mileage. it was training habits. and it was fighting dangerous fighters in new conditions. he wasn't exactly in wars with semmy and heath....

 

[ramair455]

one factor that is overlooked is staying in shape year around. It can extend your expiration date. Randy Couture comes to mind, also Benard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather, all gym rats that stayed on great shape year around.

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

alot of that has to do with better s/c and diets top athletes have today.

look at ronaldo in soccer, federer in tennis, brady in football...

all those guys are defying the conventional wisdom when athletes start to decline.

on the other hand if your s/c coach is your typical gym meathead and makes you do stuff like this

your career will be cut short

Yeah, Cain trained like an idiot. Dude was super injury prone at 31. He would just push his body till near failure. Sometimes until it failed. That's why when he was active during those 5 years or so, he would win, not based on skill, but based on just out working you at higher and faster level pace than you can keep up with. Which worked for him at the time. It made him a champion. But it mortgaged his body. It was not a sustainable form of training. Period. Even guys like Robbie Lawyer had to give up hard sparring once they were getting up in age.

 

[kflo]

As a few have said it’s all about mileage. Think of it like this. Today Jose Aldo is the same age Yoel Romero was when he made his ufc debut. I’ve said it many times, but it’s a fact that demonstrates that mileage, sparing, taking damage are all very real limitations

true, but lots of wrestlers come to the sport with mileage of their own. it's the body breaking down that creates the issues more than the head trauma from mma / sparring. usually.

 

[grimballer]

As a few have said it’s all about mileage. Think of it like this. Today Jose Aldo is the same age Yoel Romero was when he made his ufc debut. I’ve said it many times, but it’s a fact that demonstrates that mileage, sparing, taking damage are all very real limitations

getting finished plays a big factor.

crocop was never the same after that gonzaga ko.

he was way more tentative

 

[NoStoneUnturned]

Ignoring mileage for the sake of the thread. For most humans:

1. At 32 to 35 years of age the first perceptible change in your abilities arrives.
2. By 38 years of age the changes with respect to speed and ability are very noticeable.
3. By 40 years of age your ability to recover is massively impacted and you will have significantly slowed.

Adjust the above with respect to mileage, start date, nutrition, discipline, lifestyle, genetics, training habits, and number of all out wars.

 

[Dijardo]

usually it's somewhere around after 10 years of an active career. age is just a number. it doesn't really matter if you started as a teenager like Rory MacDonald or as a middle aged man like Yoel.

 

[Failwani]

34

 

[EnthusiastCultivator]

At lower weight classes (LW and <). I’d say the plateau starts at early to mid 30s and heavy decline once you go past 36 years old. We saw this in Joe Benavidez, Faber, Edgar, Cruz and Dilllashaw is next.

However at higher weight classes and especially LHW and HW. It seems as though guys hit their prime at 34-40 range. I mean Glover is 42 and is looking the best he ever did against mean competition. DC became a champ at 40. Miocic has his best performance in his last fight as well.

 

[chitoortiz]

Fight mileage>>>>>>>>>>>age

This is the correct answer.