just watched the old video Jones making picks for UFC on Fox 5 at dana s vlog..he said sth like he favours always the young and ambitious over experience making his picks on Gustaffson defeating Shogun,Mcdonald over BJ ,and Henderson over Diaz which all came true.. i guess i am sick of oldschool fighters losing to those new breed fighters,and i hate the fact he is kinda right, but can you give some examples recently which proved him wrong?
Brock Lesnar vs Overeem... kinda Overeem has much more experience and has been fighting since the early 2000's/late 90's and fought in Pride and strikeforce. Brock made his UFC debut in 2008 and was much more of a new school fighter, even though he was still past his prime. So not really a good example. A better one would be Hendo vs Bisping (happened in 2009 when bisping was more of a young up-and-comer) Brendan Schaub vs big nog big nog knocked him out. I do agree though, young and up-and-coming guys are better than experienced guys most of the time since the experienced guys are most likely past their prime and were in their prime when they were young and ambitious. But guys like Overeem and Anderson Silva who are in their prime but still have a lot of experience are better in my opinion.
I heard an pretty interesting statement from somebody in the mma world but I forget who, I'm pretty sure it was kenny florian on some mma show on fuel t.v. though. anyways during a pre fight analysis I think for travis browne vs. bigfoot maybe or some other fight with a young undefeated guy against a vet he said "browne hasn't tasted defeat yet, he doesn't know what it's like to lose so therefore he will be able to stick in there through diversity if he gets hurt or put in danger and just keep pushing til he gets the win" that's a dif way of looking at things from the prospective of a young fighter, but only if they are undefeated. I guess it means older fights who have lost before realize what it feels like when they are bout to be tko'd or lose in some way and just give in, where as young fighters never stop they just go for it.
The young have an advantage here in the classic struggle for one huge reason- the sport is still evolving and improving very quickly. Once that slows down, the old dogs will be on a better playing field, and will put up better results. It may not happen for 20 years, or whenever MMA skill-sets begin to stabilize.
