From these list of fighters, what age did they reach their prime?

[Takes Two To Tango]

If you can just narrow down to one year of their careers. Which would it be?

And we're talking about their overall prime, both physical and mental peak strength integrated together.

Also, when you felt like they were at their best.

Feel free to add more names if you like.

GSP - 30 - (When he beat Jake Shields)
Jon Jones - 24 - (When he beat Machida)
Anderson Silva - 33 - (When he beat Hendo)
Mighty Mouse - 31 - (When he beat Ray Borg)
Fedor Emelianenko - 32 - (When he beat Tim Sylvia)
Dan Henderson - 37 - (When he beat the Axe Murderer)
Khabib - 32 - (Defeated Justin Gaethje)
BJ Penn - 31 - (Beat Kenny Florian)
Stipe Miocic - 36 - (Defeats Ngannou)

 

[TheTickG]

Fedor's prime was at 29 when he beat Mirko. By 32 he was already stagnant and no longer evolving.

 

[orca]

lol at dan henderson been fighting for a long time has alot of milage
but fedor at 32 aint in his prime anymore?

lmao ok

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

The obvious... Right before they were never that good.

 

[GiganticMeat]

lol at dan henderson been fighting for a long time has alot of milage
but fedor at 32 aint in his prime anymore?

lmao ok

Jones discrediting Fedor again....

 

[volcom5]

Max Holloway 28 when he loss to Volkanovski 2. Even though he loss, that was a different Holloway in that fight, his IQ, footwork, shot selecction everything he did in that fight looked improved.

 

[TheBulge]

Fedor's prime was at 29 when he beat Mirko. By 32 he was already stagnant and no longer evolving.

Fedor was still in his prime in Strikeforce. It's not that he was no longer evolving, it's that the competition was evolving and he finally stopped ducking them. At age 33-34 he was perfectly primed. He just ran into 3 top fighters in Werdum, Silva and Hendo in modern era which also had testing. This is not the same level as Hong Man Choi, Hong man Sylvia and little old MW Lindland, or even glass canon Arlovski.

edit-I forgot to add the car mechanic they found for him to fight too.

 

[GiganticMeat]

I would call Jones prime second Gus fight maybe. Machida seems a bit early, but it was a good one. That's a full 7 years later, but to me prime means strongest before falling off. He had one more dominant fight after that against Smith.

Anderson too think you got it a bit early. Maybe Chael 2 -- Chael 1 being his biggest challenge, but a win (mental strength) then 3 more dominant fights ending in Chael 2. Puts him 4 years later with many more fights at 37. More arguable I suppose, maybe somewhere in-between with a more fine-tooth comb. But decent pattern here.

 

[volcom5]

lol at dan henderson been fighting for a long time has alot of milage
but fedor at 32 aint in his prime anymore?

lmao ok

Fedor is always a one way street, the moment he loss to Werdum and suddenly his fans claim he is out his prime. I don’t think he was out of his prime at 32,
I think it has more to do with the strength of competition and his training regime, he failed to improve because of the fighters he was fighting against most of his career. While everyone of his peers started fighting great competition once they left Pride, they had to improve on their skills while Fedor didn’t.

 

[BFoe]

I am interpreting the OP as looking for what I’d call a fighter’s peak?
I agree with some of the OP, I bolded the ones I changed.

GSP - 28 - (When he beat Jon Fitch and BJ Penn)
Jon Jones - 24 - (When he beat Machida)
Anderson Silva - 33 - (When he beat Hendo)
Mighty Mouse - 29- (Around the time he beat Horiguchi and Cejudo)
Fedor Emelianenko - 28- (When he beat Coleman, Randleman, Nog3)
Dan Henderson - 37 (When he beat the the Axe Murderer)
Khabib - 29 - (When he beat Edson)
BJ Penn - 30 - (Beat Sean Sherk)
Stipe Miocic - 34- (Defeats Werdum and Overeem)

 

[BFoe]

Fedor is always a one way street, the moment he loss to Werdum and suddenly his fans claim he is out his prime. I don’t think he was out of his prime at 32,
I think it has more to do with the strength of competition and his training regime, he failed to improve because of the fighters he was fighting against most of his career. While everyone of his peers started fighting great competition once they left Pride, they had to improve on their skills while Fedor didn’t.

2 of Fedor’s 3 Strikeforce losses were to guys from PRIDE though. Werdum and Hendo were both PRIDE fighters. And it’s not like they picked up amazing new skills post-PRIDE; Hendo beat Fedor with the wrestling and right hand he always had, and Werdum beat Fedor with the BJJ he always had.
It was Fedor who wasn’t the same fighter anymore.

 

[Deleted member 504083]

Stipe Miocic - 32 - (loses to past prime JDS)

 

[volcom5]

2 of Fedor’s 3 Strikeforce losses were to guys from PRIDE though. Werdum and Hendo were both PRIDE fighters. And it’s not like they picked up amazing new skills post-PRIDE; Hendo beat Fedor with the wrestling and right hand he always had, and Werdum beat Fedor with the BJJ he always had.
It was Fedor who wasn’t the same fighter anymore.

Prior to beating Fedor

Werdums notable competition after Pride fell
- Arlovski, Gonzaga,Vera, JDS, Bigfoot.

Dan Henderson - Rampage Jackson, Anderson Silva, Palhares, Franklin, Bisping, Shields, Sobral and Calvacante

Fedor Emelianenko -
Lindland(MW), Hong Man Choi, Sylvia, Arlovski and Brett Rogers.

Fedors only good wins were Sylvia and Arlovski after
Pride.

The strength of competition forced Henderson and Werdum to keep up while Fedor didn’t. Fedor coaches didn’t change anything in his training, didn’t bring elite training partners, didn’t try to add skills or gameplan towards his opponents, they got used to winning and took it for granted it didn’t help Fedor fought S-Class fighters in Werdum, Big Foot and Henderson back to back.

Fedor had a solid few years left when everyone was saying he out was of his prime. I don’t believe one bit he was out of his prime, he still looked great in those losses aside from BigFoot, his coaches and management and stubbornness is what failed him.

 

[Ibm]

If you can just narrow down to one year of their careers. Which would it be?

And we're talking about their overall prime, both physical and mental peak strength integrated together.

Also, when you felt like they were at their best.

Feel free to add more names if you like.

GSP - 30 - (When he beat Jake Shields)
Jon Jones - 24 - (When he beat Machida)
Anderson Silva - 33 - (When he beat Hendo)
Mighty Mouse - 31 - (When he beat Ray Borg)
Fedor Emelianenko - 32 - (When he beat Tim Sylvia)
Dan Henderson - 37 - (When he beat the Axe Murderer)
Khabib - 32 - (Defeated Justin Gaethje)
BJ Penn - 31 - (Beat Kenny Florian)
Stipe Miocic - 36 - (Defeats Ngannou)

Anderson Silva - 37
Randy Couture - 47 (when he beat Sylvia)

 

[HHJ]

Who the fuck knows. Some fighters physically decline but become more crafty and adapt their fighting abilities.

 

[LoveMyMMA]

I am interpreting the OP as looking for what I’d call a fighter’s peak?
I agree with some of the OP, I bolded the ones I changed.

GSP - 28 - (When he beat Jon Fitch and BJ Penn)
Jon Jones - 24 - (When he beat Machida)
Anderson Silva - 33 - (When he beat Hendo)
Mighty Mouse - 29- (Around the time he beat Horiguchi and Cejudo)
Fedor Emelianenko - 28- (When he beat Coleman, Randleman, Nog3)
Dan Henderson - 37 (When he beat the the Axe Murderer)
Khabib - 29 - (When he beat Edson)
BJ Penn - 30 - (Beat Sean Sherk)
Stipe Miocic - 34- (Defeats Werdum and Overeem)

Disagree w/ Khabib. He got significantly better each fight after that one, especially his striking.

 

[filthybliss]

lol at dan henderson been fighting for a long time has alot of milage
but fedor at 32 aint in his prime anymore?

lmao ok

I know Hendo fought in Pride too but those HWs back there were somethingelse.

 

[BFoe]

Prior to beating Fedor

Werdums notable competition after Pride fell
- Arlovski, Gonzaga,Vera, JDS, Bigfoot.

Dan Henderson - Rampage Jackson, Anderson Silva, Palhares, Franklin, Bisping, Shields, Sobral and Calvacante

Fedor Emelianenko -
Lindland(MW), Hong Man Choi, Sylvia, Arlovski and Brett Rogers.

Fedors only good wins were Sylvia and Arlovski after
Pride.

The strength of competition forced Henderson and Werdum to keep up while Fedor didn’t. Fedor coaches didn’t change anything in his training, didn’t bring elite training partners, didn’t try to add skills or gameplan towards his opponents, they got used to winning and took it for granted it didn’t help Fedor fought S-Class fighters in Werdum, Big Foot and Henderson back to back.

Fedor had a solid few years left when everyone was saying he out was of his prime. I don’t believe one bit he was out of his prime, he still looked great in those losses aside from BigFoot, his coaches and management and stubbornness is what failed him.

I don’t agree. Fedor didn’t look good in any of those losses really; he was wild and undisciplined, telegraphed his right hand, and his grappling looked noticeably sloppy.

Sylvia and Arlovski were ranked #5 and #2 in the world, respectively. I understand the criticism of Fedor’s opponents in 2007, but if Fedor was losing fights because he suffered from lack of competition, it should’ve shown itself when he fought two Top 5 fighters. It doesn’t really make sense to me that Werdum was somehow kept sharp by getting KTFOed by an unknown and unranked JDS while Fedor isn’t kept sharp by beating top 5 guys, especially when this didn’t manifest in their fight at all: Werdum lost the one brief striking exchange he had with Fedor, flopped, and it was all BJJ from there.

Fedor didn’t look particularly great in 2006 against Hunt. He came into that fight injured, injured himself again in that fight, injured himself again against Sylvia, struggled with Arlovksi, injured again against Rogers…. it seems clear to me what happened with Fedor. Mileage and injuries caught up to him, gradually, over a period of several years.

 

[MeatGrinder]

Gsp prime vs matt hughes 2.

 

[Uber_Noober]

Tree fiddy