UFC Champions by age - HW

[Fergelmince]

UFC CHAMPIONS BY AGE: (*= interim champion)

HW

Mark Coleman - 33
Maurice Smith - 35
Randy Couture - 34
Bas Rutten - 34
Kevin Randleman - 28
Randy Couture - 37
Josh Barnett - 25
Ricco Rodriguez - 25
Tim Sylvia - 25
Frank Mir - 25
Andrei Arlovski - 26
Tim Sylvia - 28
Randy Couture - 43
Nog* - 32
Brock Lesnar - 31
Frank Mir* - 29
Shane Carwin* - 35
Cain Velasquez - 28
Junior Dos Santos - 27
Cain Velasquez - 30
Fabricio Werdum - 38*/39
Stipe Miocic - 34
Daniel Cormier - 39
Stipe Miocic - 37

Average age = 31.6

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

For Werdum, I used 38.5 and only counted him once. I thought that was the fairest way to do so, rather than counting him twice when he's the second and third oldest guy on the list and didn't lose between being interim and official champ. This is their age when they became champions. It's not taking into account how long they held their title or what age they were when they lost it. If they were within a few months (2-3) of their next birthday, I rounded up.

Thanks for posting the data. What about HW champs by elevation?

 

[Fioretti]

Thanks for posting the data. What about HW champs by elevation?

Timmeh, I believe, has the highest elevation at HW.

 

[svmVR2097]

He was actually 19 (just a few months before his 20th birthday) when he won the HW tournament, but Mark Coleman literally won the official title that very same night, in the next match. None of the tournament champions are included. Maybe one day we can do a separate series of threads for the average age of UFC tournament champions?

my point is, the title never existed until after he fought. If there was a freak accident that caused the main event to be cancelled, there still wouldn't have been a champion. So, until the 1st one is crowned, all previous ways of determining a champion is in effect in my opinion historically.

 

[TR1]

His loss to Nog at Pride Total Elimination 2003 was total bullshit. People don't ever talk about it on here since Nog is so popular, but Ricco won that fight. It would have been such a bad look for Pride had the judges scored the fight correctly..... so they didn't score it correctly.

Don't get me wrong I love Nog and think of him as the better fighter. Ricco was better that night.

He laid and prayed, and the judges nailed him for it.

I am ok with the decision entirely, though a draw would have probably been fair.

 

[Fioretti]

my point is, the title never existed until after he fought. If there was a freak accident that caused the main event to be cancelled, there still wouldn't have been a champion. So, until the 1st one is crowned, all previous ways of determining a champion is in effect in my opinion historically.

Makes sense, but there was a title fight literally scheduled in the very next fight. So, the new method of determining a champion had already been established, and the fight was scheduled.

 

[Fioretti]

@AmericanMMA

MW was actually the highest average age of all weight classes at 31.64.

The average for all weightclasses combined is 29.69.

 

[arrmike]

His loss to Nog at Pride Total Elimination 2003 was total bullshit. People don't ever talk about it on here since Nog is so popular, but Ricco won that fight. It would have been such a bad look for Pride had the judges scored the fight correctly..... so they didn't score it correctly.

Don't get me wrong I love Nog and think of him as the better fighter. Ricco was better that night.

People bring that fight up in every thread Nog is mentioned. They both looked unmotivated. Ricco gains the most from that fight but honestly Nog was never in trouble and threatened a bit with subs and landed a couple more significant punches. I have no idea why it resembled a sparring match so much. It would have been great to have it run back with more on the line. They were both coming off losses so maybe that made them cautious.

nog deserved the decision based on Pride rules but it’s neither a good win for him or a bad loss for Rocco.

 

[AmericanMMA]

@AmericanMMA

MW was actually the highest average age of all weight classes at 31.64.

The average for all weightclasses combined is 29.69.

Interesting. I would have guessed HW. That is likely because the division as a whole seems older.

Thanks for taking the time to put all of this together.

 

[Fioretti]

Interesting. I would have guessed HW. That is likely because the division as a whole seems older.

Thanks for taking the time to put all of this together.

I thought so too, but HW has a larger sample size. MW has less total champions, and both GSP and Bisping make the average higher.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

UFC CHAMPIONS BY AGE: (*= interim champion)

HW

Mark Coleman - 33
Maurice Smith - 35
Randy Couture - 34
Bas Rutten - 34
Kevin Randleman - 28
Randy Couture - 37
Josh Barnett - 25
Ricco Rodriguez - 25
Tim Sylvia - 25
Frank Mir - 25
Andrei Arlovski - 26
Tim Sylvia - 28
Randy Couture - 43
Nog* - 32
Brock Lesnar - 31
Frank Mir* - 29
Shane Carwin* - 35
Cain Velasquez - 28
Junior Dos Santos - 27
Cain Velasquez - 30
Fabricio Werdum - 38*/39
Stipe Miocic - 34
Daniel Cormier - 39
Stipe Miocic - 37

Average age = 31.6

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

For Werdum, I used 38.5 and only counted him once. I thought that was the fairest way to do so, rather than counting him twice when he's the second and third oldest guy on the list and didn't lose between being interim and official champ. This is their age when they became champions. It's not taking into account how long they held their title or what age they were when they lost it. If they were within a few months (2-3) of their next birthday, I rounded up.

Very nice work. I'm surprised its that old, but I'm even more surprised by how big the spread was (from 25 to 43).

 

[Fioretti]

Very nice work. I'm surprised its that old, but I'm even more surprised by how big the spread was (from 25 to 43).

Think I should include the spread in the OPs?

 

[RiotWyatt]

HW should just be called Master's Division.

 

[gono btw]

His loss to Nog at Pride Total Elimination 2003 was total bullshit. People don't ever talk about it on here since Nog is so popular, but Ricco won that fight. It would have been such a bad look for Pride had the judges scored the fight correctly..... so they didn't score it correctly.

Don't get me wrong I love Nog and think of him as the better fighter. Ricco was better that night.

ok, you clearly dont understand Pride´s Scorin´System, right, mate?

 

[Fioretti]

ok, you clearly dont understand Pride´s Scorin´System, right, mate?

Behave, brotato.

 

[AmericanMMA]

ok, you clearly dont understand Pride´s Scorin´System, right, mate?

I do and I greatly prefer the system Pride had than the 10 must scoring system.

That fight was an example of the Pride system giving a disproportionate amount of credit for simply trying submissions. Nog went for sub attempts, which is why he won the fight, but many of them were not even close to finishing and the sub attempt resulted in him eating shots. He was given too much credit for simply trying submissions in that fight. Ricco imposed his will on top.

I understand this is not a popular opinion on this forum.

 

[Fioretti]

I do and I greatly prefer the system Pride had than the 10 must scoring system.

That fight was an example of the Pride system giving a disproportionate amount of credit for simply trying submissions. Nog went for sub attempts, which is why he won the fight, but many of them were not even close to finishing and the sub attempt resulted in him eating shots. He was given too much credit for simply trying submissions in that fight. Ricco imposed his will on top.

I understand this is not a popular opinion on this forum.

Goddammit. There goes the thread.

 

[Kenny95]

We really need a young 19-23 year old HW in MMA who is a star and super skilled/talented and to be the champ, we have always lacked that. They are always old and then before you know it they are retired.

Boxing has had many incredible young HW's, I remember seeing Lennox Lewis fight when he was 20 years old and he was amazing. We need some young HW in UFC as a champ

It's because it takes years to put on quality mass while training really hard cardio everyday. Look at overeems progress over the years from teens and 20s to ubereem.

 

[gono btw]

I do and I greatly prefer the system Pride had than the 10 must scoring system.

That fight was an example of the Pride system giving a disproportionate amount of credit for simply trying submissions. Nog went for sub attempts, which is why he won the fight, but many of them were not even close to finishing and the sub attempt resulted in him eating shots. He was given too much credit for simply trying submissions in that fight. Ricco imposed his will on top.

I understand this is not a popular opinion on this forum.

hmm... nah. You dont understand the qualitative difference between Pride´s & UFC´s Scorin´System.

1. Pride´s main paradigm in terms of Scorin´System was the combo [Effort to Finish the Fight / Damage],
2. while the UFC one has always been about Ground Control essentially seen as Effective Grapplin´, despite the recent changes in 2017
   
3. Pride´s Scorin´System had a descendin´scale,
4. while the UFC one is primarily about duration of the technical sequences

No probz If you wanna dismiss poor Gono´s narrative:

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/deconstructing-mma-myths-part-37-controversial-decisions-scorin´systems.4020275/

... but you should at least acknowledge Hume´s since he´s one of the mentors behind that Scorin´System:

"Let’s take a look at the recent match between Nogueira and Rodriguez to better understand the criteria:

1. Effort to finish by KO or submission:
Nogueira wins by a large margin due to his multiple submission attempts and active attack. Based on this, there is no reason to consider any further criteria as they are in descending order, however, for educational purposes we will continue."

Note that Hume´s narrative is relatively more 'hardcore' than poor Gono´s, tho...

 

[AmericanMMA]

Goddammit. There goes the thread.

lol my bad

 

[Tweak896]

I really think with USADA the big boys can't heal properly. When the UFC switched over to more testing HWs started popping left and right, until it was a skeleton division. I think HW was hit harder than other divisions when it came to steroids.