UFC Champions by age - HW

[Fioretti]

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.

They're all on some shit, mang.

 

[LHWBelt]

Ricco and Mir have both popped. Not at that time, I don't think, but eventually.

Okay so of the 5 maybe one was clean lol

 

[BoomStronk]

Great post TS. Thanks for sharing. I can imagine this is by far the oldest number average of any weight class.

It gets much older if you take out March 2002-October 2005 Below. I'd like to know the average without them seeing as that was a pretty long time ago and a relatively short period of time.

Josh Barnett - 25
Ricco Rodriguez - 25
Tim Sylvia - 25
Frank Mir - 25
Andrei Arlovski - 26

That was a nice little run of younger guys being Champ. Beyond that there is not much.

595/ 18 = 33.05 years old.

I counted werdum as 38, so you could add another .5/18 if you wanted.

 

[Local Plata]

Holy shit, never realized timmeh was only 25 when he won.

 

[Fioretti]

Okay so of the 5 maybe one was clean lol

Realistically, none of them were. Not getting caught doesn't equate to clean.

 

[Final Say]

Further proof the timmeh Vs AA era was best

lol, good one

 

[Fioretti]

595/ 18 = 33.05 years old.

I counted werdum as 38, so you could add another .5/18 if you wanted.

It's 33.29 with those guys excluded. I posted it earlier.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Think I should include the spread in the OPs?

Yes, the average and the spread together give a good picture -- unless you're really enthusiastic and want to do the standard deviation, which gives the best variation data (but probably not enough champs in some of the division for a meaning standard deviation calculation). But what you've done is already excellent, definitely appreciate it.

 

[Fioretti]

Yes, the average and the spread together give a good picture -- unless you're really enthusiastic and want to do the standard deviation, which gives the best variation data (but probably not enough champs in some of the division for a meaning standard deviation calculation). But what you've done is already excellent, definitely appreciate it.

I added the youngest and oldest to each one after I asked you about it. Lol - seemed right. You're welcome to go for the standard deviation if you like, but I'm taking a break. If you decide to do so, just post in each thread and I'll add it to the OP. There probably isn't enough champs at FW and below, but the top 5 divisions may have large enough samples. HW has the most by far.

 

[BoomStronk]

It's 33.29 with those guys excluded. I posted it earlier.

How? I even double checked my math.

Do the combined ages of the hws minus the once listed not equal 595?

 

[Fioretti]

How? I even double checked my math.

Do the combined ages of the hws minus the once listed not equal 595?

I will math it out for you later, but I noticed two mistakes earlier: I saw you dividing by 18 instead of 19, and you put 38 for Werdum instead of 38.5. Those two mistakes doesn't seem like you would only be off by that slight amount, so I'm not sure what else you did wrong. I'll double check later.

 

[Fioretti]

How? I even double checked my math.

Do the combined ages of the hws minus the once listed not equal 595?

The total for all fighters minus the five he listed is 632.5

There are 24 total fighters. 24-5 = 19

632.5/19 = 32.28947368

32.29

You missed a 37 year old champ (Randy or Stipe), missed .5 for Werdum, and divided by 18 instead of 19.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Did the standard deviation for your data (in your original post), comes out to 5.2 for HW's (assuming I didn't make any typos it into Excel).

So HW champs ave age = 31.6, standard deviation 5.2.

That's a much bigger variation than I'd have predicted before seeing your post. It also has a pronounced positive skew -- as opposed to being the normal distribution I predicted. Definitely interesting stuff.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

I added the youngest and oldest to each one after I asked you about it. Lol - seemed right. You're welcome to go for the standard deviation if you like, but I'm taking a break. If you decide to do so, just post in each thread and I'll add it to the OP. There probably isn't enough champs at FW and below, but the top 5 divisions may have large enough samples. HW has the most by far.

Did it for HW and put a post in that thread, will do the others later when have a bit of free time. Careful, you're likely to get kicked off of Sherdog for giving real data instead of just throwing out opinions.

 

[Fioretti]

Did the standard deviation for your data (in your original post), comes out to 5.2 for HW's (assuming I didn't make any typos it into Excel).

So HW champs ave age = 31.6 +- 5.2.

That's a much bigger variation than I'd have predicted before seeing your post. It also has a pronounced positive skew -- as opposed to being the normal distribution I predicted. Definitely interesting stuff.

I added it to the OP. I didn't check your math, so I hope it's right! Thanks, man. Cheers!

 

[Fioretti]

Updated to show Ngannou. The numbers would have changed more if we knew his real age.

 

[MCS]

Looks like MW is the bigman cutoff point by age, with jumping a bit to 31 from 27-29. Same range continues at 205 and HW. All divisions as a whole go along with the thought of peaking in the 28-32 range. No divisions have an average close to 35.

A thing that affects or skews the statistic is the newness of the sport. Bas, Coleman and Randy had no choice but to start late, so the average age goes up by circumstance. The next group of older guys are Werdum and Stipe in recent times, which is due to the HW div not producing great new talent, but old guys beating old guys.

The most common ages are 25 to 30 and in between. If you take the late starters away that's what I read in this stat.

 

[Fioretti]

Looks like MW is the bigman cutoff point by age, with jumping a bit to 31 from 27-29. Same range continues at 205 and HW. All divisions as a whole go along with the thought of peaking in the 28-32 range. No divisions have an average close to 35.

A thing that affects or skews the statistic is the newness of the sport. Bas, Coleman and Randy had no choice but to start late, so the average age goes up by circumstance. The next group of older guys are Werdum and Stipe in recent times, which is due to the HW div not producing great new talent, but old guys beating old guys.

The most common ages are 25 to 30 and in between. If you take the late starters away that's what I read in this stat.

Only 2 out of 8 divisions have an average below 29 years old. The sample size for one of them (FW) is only 5, so that is obviously a huge factor. This is not "peaking", these are the ages they are when they initially win the title. It doesn't factor in how long they keep/hold the title, or what age they are when they lose the belt, only what age they were at when they initially won the title.

The sport is 30 years old at this point. The average age of champions is not going up by circumstance, it's pretty consistent that most champions are 31-33 throughout history.

21 out of 96 UFC champions (throughout history) were under the age of 27 when they won their belt. That's only 21.88%. Which means 78.12% of UFC champions throughout history have been 27 years or older.

 

[MCS]

Only 2 out of 8 divisions have an average below 29 years old. The sample size for one of them (FW) is only 5, so that is obviously a huge factor. This is not "peaking", these are the ages they are when they initially win the title. It doesn't factor in how long they keep/hold the title, or what age they are when they lose the belt, only what age they were at when they initially won the title.

The sport is 30 years old at this point. The average age of champions is not going up by circumstance, it's pretty consistent that most champions are 31-33 throughout history.

21 out of 96 UFC champions (throughout history) were under the age of 27 when they won their belt. That's only 21.88%. Which means 78.12% of UFC champions throughout history have been 27 years or older.

Yes, MW is the first div where the average age jumps above 30. I believe peaking is when you jump from contender to champion. How long a peak lasts is a different thing.

I didn't say it would go up by circumstance now, but for this stat it does because of Randy, Bas and Coleman. That is the newness of the sport. If this same stat is done 20 years from now there are no champs who started MMA when basically 30.

 

[Fioretti]

Yes, MW is the first div where the average age jumps above 30. I believe peaking is when you jump from contender to champion. How long a peak lasts is a different thing.

I didn't say it would go up by circumstance now, but for this stat it does because of Randy, Bas and Coleman. That is the newness of the sport. If this same stat is done 20 years from now there are no champs who started MMA when basically 30.

30 years into the sport:

From the top 2 MMA organizations in the world:

• 2 out of 19 champions are in their 20's: Pettis (27) and Namajunas (28)
• 3 out of 19 are exactly 31
• 2 out of 19 are exactly 32
• 17 out of 19 champions are 31+ years old
  
• 12 out of 19 champions are 33+ years old
• Each org has 1 current double champion: Nunes (32), and Pitbull (33)

Not a single current champion under 27. The 2 out of 19 that are under 31 are brand new champions. I only counted the double champs once each, so in all actuality, it's 2 out of 21 that are under 31 - 9.52%