The UFC under 30. Top 10s per division under 30.

[ethanfranklin]

Going by the UFCs own rankings here.

What you are looking at are the respective top 10s, with over 30 years olds taken out.

A few key things-

Obviously the lighter, the faster. Theres some outliers, like Faber, but the lower you go, the more young fighters there tend to be.

The three top weight divisions, seem to have real issues accessing young talent, and considering the dominant runs of people like Weidman and Jones, this shows great promise for the guys who have made it through.

Considering a lot of bigger athletes go to bigger sports, that dont discriminate on size, and offer real advantages to larger athletes, it makes sense that UFC MMA is built ever more on the smaller guys.

30 is a pretty arbitrary figure, however neat it is. Theres a few guys just over that, like Cain, and a few guys just under, like Benson, who should be features in the higher echelon for years to come.

Every champion outside of HW and WW is now under 30. Cain is 31 and GSP is 32.

HEAVYWEIGHT
1 Junior Dos Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Jon Jones
1 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Phil Davis
9 Gegard Mousasi

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Chris Weidman
6 Luke Rockhold

WELTERWEIGHT
2 Carlos Condit
3 Rory MacDonald
5 Jake Ellenberger
9 Tarec Saffiedine

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Anthony Pettis
1 Benson Henderson
3 TJ Grant
6 Rafael dos Anjos
7 Khabib Nurmagomedov
8 Nate Diaz

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Jose Aldo
1 Chad Mendes
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Dustin Poirier
8 Nik Lentz
10 Erik Koch

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Dominick Cruz
1 Renan Barao (Interim Champion)
3 Michael McDonald
4 Eddie Wineland
8 Mike Easton
9 TJ Dillashaw
10 Takeya Mizugaki

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 John Dodson
3 Ian McCall
4 John Moraga
5 John Lineker
6 Jussier Formiga
7 Timothy Elliott
9 Louis Gaudinot


WOMEN'S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Ronda Rousey
2 Sarah Kaufman
3 Miesha Tate
5 Liz Carmouche
6 Alexis Davis
7 Amanda Nunes
8 Germaine de Randamie


http://www.ufc.com/rankings

 

[Jay Sandvig]

Interesting that all flw are under 30 and lighter weights have much more younger fighters in top 10

 

[EJRMAN513]

Jacare is 33

 

[ethanfranklin]

Jacare is 33

My bad. I missed him on the delete run. There shouldnt be too many like that, but feel free to point out any errors.

 

[ethanfranklin]

Interesting that all flw are under 30 and lighter weights have much more younger fighters in top 10

Cariaso and Uyenoyama are overs. I think the rest of the list is tight now.

Ill re check the women, but that basically it for the guys.

 

[Legendary]

Going by the UFCs own rankings here.

What you are looking at are the respective top 10s, with over 30 years olds taken out.

A few key things-

Obviously the lighter, the faster. Theres some outliers, like Faber, but the lower you go, the more young fighters there tend to be.

The three top weight divisions, seem to have real issues accessing young talent, and considering the dominant runs of people like Weidman and Jones, this shows great promise for the guys who have made it through.

Considering a lot of bigger athletes go to bigger sports, that dont discriminate on size, and offer real advantages to larger athletes, it makes sense that UFC MMA is built ever more on the smaller guys.

30 is a pretty arbitrary figure, however neat it is. Theres a few guys just over that, like Cain, and a few guys just under, like Benson, who should be features in the higher echelon for years to come.

HEAVYWEIGHT
1 Junior Dos Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Jon Jones
1 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Phil Davis
9 Gegard Mousasi

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Chris Weidman
6 Luke Rockhold

WELTERWEIGHT
2 Carlos Condit
3 Rory MacDonald
5 Jake Ellenberger
9 Tarec Saffiedine

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Anthony Pettis
1 Benson Henderson
3 TJ Grant
6 Rafael dos Anjos
7 Khabib Nurmagomedov
8 Nate Diaz

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Jose Aldo
1 Chad Mendes
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Dustin Poirier
8 Nik Lentz
10 Erik Koch

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Dominick Cruz
1 Renan Barao (Interim Champion)
3 Michael McDonald
4 Eddie Wineland
8 Mike Easton
9 TJ Dillashaw
10 Takeya Mizugaki

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 John Dodson
3 Ian McCall
4 John Moraga
5 John Lineker
6 Jussier Formiga
7 Timothy Elliott
9 Louis Gaudinot


WOMEN'S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Ronda Rousey
2 Sarah Kaufman
3 Miesha Tate
5 Liz Carmouche
6 Alexis Davis
7 Amanda Nunes
8 Germaine de Randamie


http://www.ufc.com/rankings

Lower weights classes = more athleticism required= youth=athleticism

 

[ALAN PARTRIDGE]

interesting lists

 

[ethanfranklin]

interesting lists

HEAVYWEIGHT
1 Junior Dos Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Jon Jones
1 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Phil Davis
9 Gegard Mousasi

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Chris Weidman
6 Luke Rockhold

WELTERWEIGHT
2 Carlos Condit
3 Rory MacDonald
5 Jake Ellenberger
9 Tarec Saffiedine

Considering the popularity of the larger weight divisions, and the relatively few fighters who are young in them, its definitely an idea to market the above guys, over guys like Sonnen who is 36.

 

[boz]

Interesting numbers. Make sense.

Guys get heavier as they age. Look at Matt Serra.
10 years ago - Lightweight
5 years ago - Welterweight
Present - Heavyweight

 

[Johntreksmith]

Interesting that all flw are under 30 and lighter weights have much more younger fighters in top 10

More people are naturally in the weight classes. Average american male is something around 160 lbs, everywhere else a little lower around 150 to 155. Also age comes into account. Speed is premium as well as fighters get older and it's harder for them to stay in lighter weight classes as they add weight.

 

[Noraa 666]

It's for two main reasons. Cardio is the biggest advantage the lighter the weight classes. They go 90mph for all three rounds but they very rarely end in a ko. The older you get the harder it is not to put on weight and your cardio and speed are among the first things to go.

Now HW it can take years to put on 50lbs of shredded muscle and grow into your frame naturally. Besides eating horsemeat of course. Now very few hw's have great cardio and even the ones that do (Cain) still very rarely go at the pace a Clay Guida would go at for instance (Cain's not even a natural hw and has very little muscle tone to boot as well). Now HW is like a sword fight too. First one to land usually wins by ko. It's like bodybuilding it can take until your low 30's to put on that physic right and use it properly. You can't just jump up and down in weight and expect to be brock lesnar by adding 30lbs quickly. Ask Mir. Size and functioning strength take up to 3-4 years at least sometimes.

 

[Noraa 666]

More people are naturally in the weight classes. Average american male is something around 160 lbs, everywhere else a little lower around 150 to 155. Also age comes into account. Speed is premium as well as fighters get older and it's harder for them to stay in lighter weight classes as they add weight.

Actually the average american male is well in the 200's sadly. I'm Canadian and mean no offense. I'm 5'8 and weight about 180lbs right now. I'm usually 165lbs and I'm by far the shorter side of my group of friends. I just had total reconstructive knee surgery that would make Shogun puke in March FYI. Shot up to almost 200lbs when I was bed ridden for 6 weeks.

Most are about 5'11 and weigh about 200lbs and up. Yes the average male is about 5'9 or 5'10 in north america but there weight is usually about 220. It should be about 160 but it's far from that due to obesity. They had to make airline seats bigger for Americans for just that reason. Hey we have lots of over weight Canadians too. Europe has way better impulse control and more expensive take out food as well. Just how our cultures differ imo. To each their own.

 

[RedRover]

Actually the average american male is well in the 200's sadly. I'm Canadian and mean no offense. I'm 5'8 and weight about 180lbs right now. I'm usually 165lbs and I'm by far the shorter side of my group of friends. I just had total reconstructive knee surgery that would make Shogun puke in March FYI. Shot up to almost 200lbs when I was bed ridden for 6 weeks.

Most are about 5'11 and weigh about 200lbs and up. Yes the average male is about 5'9 or 5'10 in north america but there weight is usually about 220. It should be about 160 but it's far from that due to obesity. They had to make airline seats bigger for Americans for just that reason. Hey we have lots of over weight Canadians too. Europe has way better impulse control and more expensive take out food as well. Just how our cultures differ imo. To each their own.

Maybe he means the average lean weight. The male average height in USA according to wikipedia is 5' 10.5". I hear you on the fat thing, I'm 6' and 200lbs sitting around 17% BF and i'm lean compared to most around here. My fighting weight (5%BF) if i could lose only fat (nearly impossible) would be 176 hydrated, So i could probably cut to 170 if i was really motivated.
If everyone could be in fighting shape I bet as the bell curve would predict: 145-185 (the weight classes without the 2 highest and lowest) would catch 80% of the population in USA/Canada (similar people)

 

[Drake]

Interesting numbers. Make sense.

Guys get heavier as they age. Look at Matt Serra.
10 years ago - Lightweight
5 years ago - Welterweight
Present - Super Heavyweight

Fixed.

 

[Grappling Rules]

Interesting that all flw are under 30 and lighter weights have much more younger fighters in top 10

I think that has a lot to do with the relative newness of the lighter divisions. Until recently, most smaller guys probably didn't aspire to an MMA career because they knew it would be too hard to overcome the size disadvantage if the lowest weight they could fight at was 155 and they were capable of making 125. Give the division another 5-10 years and I think you'll see it balance out more.

 

[lrkjr]

Actually the average american male is well in the 200's sadly. I'm Canadian and mean no offense. I'm 5'8 and weight about 180lbs right now. I'm usually 165lbs and I'm by far the shorter side of my group of friends. I just had total reconstructive knee surgery that would make Shogun puke in March FYI. Shot up to almost 200lbs when I was bed ridden for 6 weeks.

Most are about 5'11 and weigh about 200lbs and up. Yes the average male is about 5'9 or 5'10 in north america but there weight is usually about 220. It should be about 160 but it's far from that due to obesity. They had to make airline seats bigger for Americans for just that reason. Hey we have lots of over weight Canadians too. Europe has way better impulse control and more expensive take out food as well. Just how our cultures differ imo. To each their own.

What? The average American male is about 5'9" 195. Still not where it should be, but 220 would mean that 30-40% of people would have to be over 250 to make up for the people under.

 

[Rockapotomuses]

Speed, flexibility and reflex go as you age, but not cardio or power. Most marathon runners are over 30. Buddy's dad is 58 and just did an iron man.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

Interesting

 

[GrindingANARCHY]

JDS, Aldo & Barao, the future of MMA.

 

[Sidecontrol87]

Didn't realize how young moose is. Thought he was mid 30s for some reason