MMA has basically stopped evolving in the last 10 years

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As the title says, I believe that MMA has basically stopped evolving in the last 10 years. I'm not saying that this is a good thing, just that fighters seem to have peaked about 10 or so years or go and have basically remained the same in terms of talent and ability.

The best evidence for this is that if you go back 10 years and look at the champions they are as good or better than the champions of today.

In 2013 the UFC had champions such as GSP, DJ, Jon Jones, Benson Henderson, Chris Weidman, Cain Velasquez etc.

The prime version of any of those fighters would be a champion in today's UFC or would be in serious contention. And if you go down the rankings the fighters from then are comparable to the fighters today.

My feeling is that we have pretty much hit the peak in terms of the evolution of fighters. The fighters we've seen in the last 10 years are pretty much as good as they'll ever be.
 
hmmmm i say you are both right and wrong

For the exception of Anderson Jon jones DJ and Cain, alot of those champs would of gotten creamed.
For instance we all know PRIME IZZY crushes weidman. Prime anderson would of toyed with weidman.
Prime usman TYRON and Robbie takes out GSP. tyron hits too hard, robbie hits hard, and usman is gsp 2.0.
on the other side

Now prime anderson walks through weidman luke Strickland Ddp Bisping derrick brunson , the only issues
would be IZZY Rob whit Paulo AND YOEL. Oh and how could i forget KHAMZAT. Khamzat and Yoel would be a major
problem due to the take down

Francis runs through heavy weight division back then, assuming hes allowed to juice too.

and lastly i will say the 3 kings of the 205 which is Jones DC and Anthony rumble johnson
runs through and remains the top 3 in any era of the 205 division. name a person in 205
whose beating prime rumble and DC.......
 
Sonny Qc said:
Prime GSP
Prime Silva
Prime JBJ
Prime Velasquez

Fck everybody up today in these 4 divisions.
Click to expand...

Cain vs Old Man Jon is at worst 50/50 even at this stage. The winner of Pav/Aspinall is an interesting fight too, as is Ngannou (who yes KO'd Cain pre knee injury, one of the stupidest lies I've seen on Sherdog from people pretending Cain blew out his knee first then got KO'd).

He'd have wiped the floor with Stipe, Gane, and DC though.
 
markg171 said:
Cain vs Old Man Jon is at worst 50/50 even at this stage. The winner of Pav/Aspinall is an interesting fight too, as is Ngannou (who yes KO'd Cain pre knee injury, one of the stupidest lies I've seen on Sherdog from people pretending Cain blew out his knee first then got KO'd).

He'd have wiped the floor with Stipe, Gane, and DC though.
Click to expand...
Jon in his prime that fought DC beats every version of Cain
 
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GSP got beat by Hendricks, who got beat by Lawler. GSP would not be champion today, probably not even in the top 5 WW. Takedown defense alone, is worlds apart from where it was 10 years ago, everybody just got better, and more well rounded. There isnt a champion from 10 years ago that would be champion now other than JJ, and that’s because he evolved with the sport.
 
People will argue this because they are so brainwashed by the UFC hype machine that tells them "current fighter is the best ever" but this is essentially correct. The "sport has evolved" cliche is such a lazy and baseless comment; people are just regurgitating old commentary from the mid 2000s when announcers were comparing fighters from the 90s like Gary Goodridge and Mark Coleman to the well-rounded multi-faceted fighters of the day.

The sport is no longer "improving in leaps and bounds" and in fact, we're seeing more one dimensional fighters in the top 10 than we EVER did in the late 2000s/2010s. The pay for MMA is so poor that if you were a college wrestler from the USA with a degree, why the hell would you risk long term health effects (and significant medical bills) when you can probably make more money with stability/growth opportunities working a normal job? lol Training camps/supplements/dieticians aren't free you know and now you can't even get your own sponsors? Seriously, what is the incentive to be a fighter when even the tippy top guys are paid a fraction of what other pro athletes are? There is a reason we've seen an influx of talent from more developing countries o_O

I think the evolution of the sport peaked when there was guys like Rory Macdonald, Mighty Mouse, etc who were literally training to be MMA fighters from day 1 and "specialists" transitioning over from 1 major combat sport into mma were less the norm for a good chunk of years. I genuinely challenge someone who believes the "sport has evolved" to actually explain in plain English what the hell that means in 2023? lol Has some new radical submission been invented? Are there unseen strikes being taught in a Shaolin temple yet to be unleashed on the world? <Lmaoo>

I'm sorry but I'm not buying it. Go look at the MW top 10 and tell me the sport is at its peak right now like jesus, everyone besides Whittaker and Izzy would not even sniff the top 10 Prime vs Prime.

Same goes for the other divisions above BW like Brian Ortega has 1 win in nearly 6 full years and is still ranked #3 at FW right now because the division is so shallow LOL. And LHW, do you think Jan Blachowicz and Glover just magically got dramatically better in their late 30s or is it at all possible the level of competition just went completely off a cliff in the past 5 years? lol

People can believe whatever delusion they want but I'm with you TS... I genuinely laugh out loud every time I read "the sport has evolved" used in a serious manner. It's the equivalent to saying "the lord works in mysterious ways" in a religious argument like "oh you ran out of things to say, gotcha" <Lmaoo>
 
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