What age do fighters usually 'lose their prime' at?

MMA might be the only sport where fans think a guy pushing 40 is at his best just because he managed to out grapple a striker with a weak ground game in a competition dry division.
 
sonhow said:
He did his best work at 40. Anyway it was the least significant point of the post. People are individual and this is 100% a fact.
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Because the competition was weaker : it's called favorable circumstances.

People are indeed individuals, but biology is for everyone.
 
MetaIIica said:
I noticed that many fighters will be in their primes until mid 30s, but some people can even make it to mid 40's like Yoel Romero, Teixiera, Couture, DC.

It seems like the age for UFC fighters decline starts at 35
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Depends on weight class. Heavyweights have much later primes than Lightweights for example. Basically the heavier the weight class the later the prime in general.
 
Yellowcrab said:
Because the competition was weaker : it's called favorable circumstances.

People are indeed individuals, but biology is for everyone.
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Circumstances are important indeed. I still think overall momentum matters. Maybe even more than biology.
But I'm more of a psychologist who thinks it's "all between your ears". In the end I agree with most of your points. I'm not in my fourties myself so I don't feel the big difference yet. My opinion probably will change in time lol.
 
acannxr said:
In general, fighters decline/fall off by their 9th year of fighting, regardless of their age.
https://www.fightopinion.com/2011/06/19/9-year-rule-mma-ufc/
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Those "data" are bullshit :

age_win_percentage.png


fighter_age_win_pct.png


https://www.dillonbhuff.com/?p=1392

And it's not based on 300 fighters but : After filtering out the types of fights listed above there were 52,299 fights as of January 6, 2018.

Your link is basically whenever my favorite fighter is starting to lose, it's because he's out of prime.

Also : Fighters’ Winning Percentage Against Quality Opponents

What does it mean ? Nothing, it's just vague because your link is unreliable.

Was Antônio Silva a "quality opponent" (Fedor) ? I mean he only chose the criteria that fit his narrative.

No to mention that all the examples mentionned are flawed :

- Some of them simply went out from Japan and got exposed (Fedor, Wanderlei, Gomi)
- Some of them started to lose in the UFC once there was USADA (Pulver)
- Some of them were simply already old (Liddell)

I don't deny the mileage, it's also an important factor, but just like the biological age.
 
Last edited:
In MMA on average I'd say around 35, seems to have a longer shelf life compared to some other sports.
 
Yellowcrab said:
Ok so if a boxer started at 50 years old, he's in his prime ? I mean he's better than when he wasn't a boxer ?
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That's not an equivalent example.

An equivalent example is a 20 year old boxer getting KO'd left and right.

Now, he's 50 and is KO'ing people left and right, including the people that previously KO'd him.

While it's not conclusive, we should definitely agree and bet on that the fighter has entered their prime at 50.
 
Depends on milage, fighting style, weight class. Josh Barnett mentioned most fighters have essentially a 7 year window or so. Anyone who stays at the top of their game is gonna be a huge outlier.
 
MetaIIica said:
I noticed that many fighters will be in their primes until mid 30s, but some people can even make it to mid 40's like Yoel Romero, Teixiera, Couture, DC.

It seems like the age for UFC fighters decline starts at 35
Click to expand...
Prime depends on a shit load of things but from what I've seen fighters go off a cliff after age 38 usually. Physically they start to peak at around 32 at the latest.
 
Age doesn't matter. After 10 years of fighting "elite" competition every fighter in the history of MMA stopped being in their prime. Period.

Literally everyone looks worse to the eyes after fighting high end competition for 10 or more years... Jon Jones has still evaded losing so far, but anyone with eyeballs can see that he hasn't been in his prime since fighting Gus.... He joined the UFC in 2008 and fought Gus in 2018. 10 years. He just happens to still be winning a few fights, but he's clearly passed his prime.

That goes for every fighter ever.
 
If you go off of boxing, which has been around MUCH longer. It seems that most fighters tend to fall of quickly after 33yo.
 
It’s not age but, rather hairline
Once the hairline goes, the chin follows
 
34 is around when the decline starts in my opinion. It varies but at the top of divisions 35 is old for any weight below Middleweight.
 
The smaller the fighter the earlier they lose it. But at the upper weights fighters have shown they can fight a high level up to 40.
 
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