Current MMA Champions by age

Fioretti said:
Nope. Cruz, Aldo, and Jones being champs so young are outliers. Keep in mind, the averages you see in the all of the links in the OP (champs per division) are when they first acquired their belt. It doesn't factor in how long they held their belt, or their ages throughout their reign. This greatly reduces the averages. For example, Silva counts as 31, but he held the belt until he was 38. Jones, Aldo, GSP, and a few others reduce the average age of the champions in their divisions in the same way.
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Put it this way, who is better 26 year old Jon Jones or 32 year old Jon Jones? Who is better 26 year old Jose Aldo or 32 year old Aldo? Also, why did such a young Jon Jones beat Shogun, Rampage and Machida so easily? Are you arguing he beat Shogun because Shogun hadn't reached his prime? Shogun was 29 at the time. I've had this argument with many on this board. They thought Shogun was past him prime at 29.
 
Eric Silva 2.0 said:
Put it this way, who is better 26 year old Jon Jones or 32 year old Jon Jones? Who is better 26 year old Jose Aldo or 32 year old Aldo? Also, why did such a young Jon Jones beat Shogun, Rampage and Machida so easily? Are you arguing he beat Shogun because Shogun hadn't reached his prime? Shogun was 29 at the time. I've had this argument with many on this board. They thought Shogun was past him prime at 29.
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There's so many factors involved here, man. Jones wasn't "more prime" than Shogun, he was a better fighter. Period. Whether or not a fighter falls off before he reaches his physical prime doesn't mean he's "out of his prime" at an earlier age. Injuries, PED testing, weight cuts, better competition, and 500 other things can attribute to their decrease in performance. It doesn't mean their body is physiologically different or inferior. A man's physical prime is typically between the ages of 27-35. They'll never naturally have as high a combination of strength, speed, and reflexes before or after that time period.
 
I thought Francis was 42?
 
Nice to know I'm only 8 or so years past my prime
 
Most get in their prime from 26-34 so I guess that makes sense.
 
LHW & HW rockin the chair!

#OldManStrengthBless
 
We don't see younger champions because it takes a bunch of fights to climb the rankings.

Some fighters only fight once or twice per year, 3 nowadays is very active.

Plus I think most fighters don't turn pro until they're like 20 at least.
 
Kryptt said:
LHW & HW rockin the chair!

#OldManStrengthBless
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Current champs have the highest average, but I believe that's because I only averaged out the weightclasses by the age they were when they won the title. Either way, 31-33 is where it's at for MMA.
 
Cases like Jones, GSP etc are exceptions usually if a fighter reaches the championship level before 30 they're 28,29. Most title contenders are in their 30s. Even Jones would have taken another year or so if not for a bunch of injuries.

Barring big injuries this is how it normally goes.
25-30 Prospect
30-35 Prime
35-40 Aging
40-45 Old
45+ Retired
 
ferrisjso said:
Cases like Jones, GSP etc are exceptions usually if a fighter reaches the championship level before 30 they're 28,29. Most title contenders are in their 30s. Even Jones would have taken another year or so if not for a bunch of injuries.

Barring big injuries this is how it normally goes.
25-30 Prospect
30-35 Prime
35-40 Aging
40-45 Old
45+ Retired
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Obviously it's going to vary from person to person, but that is a fairly accurate take on it. I would lump old/retired into 40+.
 
John makfresshi said:
Fedor cucks, explain why Fedor was being emasculated in the states at 33 if everyone seems to be destroying competition at that age? Is it because he went 6-5 under fights sanctioned by a governing body? And that maybe, just maybe PRIDE kept his mystique alive, longer then his skills could?
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No.
The issue is that age is only a fraction of understanding this. Why was Stipe fighting at a high level at age 38 and Fedor was struggling at 33? Because Stipe debuted almost 5 years later than Fedor. Fedor had more fights in the first 4 1/2 years of his career than Stipe has had in his entire career. We’re seeing Stipe decline now, as he goes into his second decade of fighting—just like GSP and Fedor did.

Fedor debuted at age 24.
Ngannou? 28
Stipe? 28
Cormier? 30 (almost 31)

If TS listed that along with their fight records we’d have a clearer picture of how this works. One notable exception to this is Blachowicz, by it’s also a little early to make a judgement. He’s fortunate to have fought some older declining fighters himself, along with Reyes who I think was overrated due to Bones’ own decline and habit of fighting down to the level of his opponents in later years.
 
BFoe said:
No.
The issue is that age is only a fraction of understanding this. Why was Stipe fighting at a high level at age 38 and Fedor was struggling at 33? Because Stipe debuted almost 5 years later than Fedor. Fedor had more fights in the first 4 1/2 years of his career than Stipe has had in his entire career. We’re seeing Stipe decline now, as he goes into his second decade of fighting—just like GSP and Fedor did.

Fedor debuted at age 24.
Ngannou? 28
Stipe? 28
Cormier? 30 (almost 31)

If TS listed that along with their fight records we’d have a clearer picture of how this works. One notable exception to this is Blachowicz, by it’s also a little early to make a judgement. He’s fortunate to have fought some older declining fighters himself, along with Reyes who I think was overrated due to Bones’ own decline and habit of fighting down to the level of his opponents in later years.
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Eh....the Fedor issue is that people claim he was old and out of his prime at 33. Physical declines don't really start happening until 37-ish or so, which is prevalent in your examples of Stipe, DC, etc. Another big factor with Fedor is his level of competition. He lost the first time he fought 4 top 10 guys in a row, and went 3-3 the first time he fought 6. Yes, mileage is a factor, but not the only factor. See Mousasi for reference.
 
Fioretti said:
UFC

HW: Francis Ngannou - 35
LHW: Jan Blachowicz - 38
MW: Israel Adesanya - 32
WW: Kamaru Usman - 34
LW: Charles Oliveira - 31
FW: Alexander Volkanovski - 32
BW: Aljamain Sterling - 32
FLW: Brandon Moreno - 27
Women’s FW/BW: Amanda Nunes - 33
Women’s FLW: Valentina Shevchenko - 33
Women’s SW: Rose Namajunas - 29

Youngest - 27
Oldest - 38
Average age = 32.42

BELLATOR

HW: Bader - 38
LHW: Nemkov - 29
MW: Mousasi - 36
WW: Amosov - 28
LW: Freire - 34
FW: McKee - 26
BW: Pettis - 28
WFW: Cyborg - 36
FLW: Velasquez - 34

Youngest - 26
Oldest - 38
Average age = 32.11

Average age of all champions from both organizations combined = 32.29


UFC Champions by age - HW
UFC Champions by age - LHW
UFC Champions by age - MW
UFC Champions by age - WW
UFC Champions by age - LW
UFC Champions by age - FW
UFC Champions by age - BW
UFC Champions by age - FLW


The links above are all champions in UFC history.
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It takes a certain amount of experience to become champ?
 
Fioretti said:
Eh....the Fedor issue is that people claim he was old and out of his prime at 33. Physical declines don't really start happening until 37-ish or so, which is prevalent in your examples of Stipe, DC, etc. Another big factor with Fedor is his level of competition. He lost the first time he fought 4 top 10 guys in a row, and went 3-3 the first time he fought 6. Yes, mileage is a factor, but not the only factor. See Mousasi for reference.
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It’s not just Fedor though. GSP had his fight with Hendricks and walked away from the sport at age 32.
Jose Aldo is only 35, yet he’s 5-5 in his last 10–and that’s only possible by making adjustments to his game and dropping weight classes to 135, which would’ve been unthinkable 10 years ago. Why? Because he’s been fighting since he was 18 and has a ton of mileage. In his first decade of fighting he was 25-1. In his second decade, he’s 5-6.
BJ Penn? Debuted at age 23. He went 16-7-2 (4 of those 7 losses are to GSP and Frankie) in his first decade, and went 0-7 in his second decade. Fell off a cliff at age 33.
See the pattern?

I agree that Moose is an exception, but exceptions are just that: they’re exceptions, not the rule. It does seem clear that he’s declining now, and his recent opposition is kind of questionable (2 declining WWs in Rory and Lima, and I question exactly how good Carvalho or Salter are). We’ll have to keep an eye on Moose. I’m a big fan though, so hopefully he can keep fighting at a decently high level for awhile. But I doubt it.
 
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