Why Did Fedor's Prime End Early?
- Thread starter Towerworld
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You are out of your fucking mind if you think a fighter is the same at age 27 as they are at age 36.
If you actually watched his whole career and kept up with the news you would see the gradual decline.
Only a moron would think guys like JDS, Carlos Condit and BJ Penn, etc..are still in their prime, and they have about half as many fights as Fedor and didn't spent nearly as long on top as Fedor.
Now I agree he probably got lazy with training after a decade on top but he also had many injuries and other things that affected that. He still lasted longer as a #1 than any other fighter ever.
Lasted #1 longer than any other fighter yet doesn’t have half of the top 5 wins GSP has… something not adding up there oh I get it…level of competition!!!
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10% of Olympic gold medals go to athletes over the age of 30.
15% of NBA and NHL MVP's go to athletes over the age of 30.
10% of Tennis Grand Slam tournaments go to athletes over the age of 30.
The median age in the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA is 27.
People who think being over 30 doesn't signify a big decline in athletic performance simply aren't paying attention; every sport scientist, every high level coach in the world knows that physically you're declining past age 26. The Olympic results alone (a huge statistical data base) should convince everyone of that.
What athletes do who continue to be successful into their 30's is change their style to reflect their slowing reflexes and conditioning. Look at how Ali fought in his 20's - lighting speed and movement, and how he fought in his 30's - smart tactics, wearing down opponents while taking a lot of damage. Look at how Kobe or Gretzky (who actually fell off dramatically after age 34) or Shaq played in their 30's compared to their 20's, dramatically changing their approach (easier in team sports where you can send younger guys in to do the quick stuff).
Fedor never changed his style to reflect his slowing reflexes (neither did Roy Jones Jr, who started losing badly at the same age Fedor started losing). That doesn't take away from how good Fedor was in his prime (just as it doesn't for Roy Jones Jr), though you could argue its a strike against him when discussing GOAT - many would say the GOAT is someone who can change his style to match his aging body.
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Not arguing the Fedor goat point because it's pointless and goes in circles, but to say mma has only evolved once? Ehh
How do you figure honestly?
It's not nearly as simple as you make it seem, I know kids that have been training at ATT in in every facet of mma under the unified rules since they were adolescents, how many kids were doing that in the early 2000s? I know for a fact not nearly as much.
You ask any fighter, coach, or someone who trains and watches the game change knows it's constantly evolving, the only time I see someone say that mma isn't evolving is on sherdog which doesn't suprise me.
Instead of having a blackbelt in bjj learn wrestling so he can impose his game in the cage, we are having guys that already have 5 years of wrestling experience and bjj experience, and striking...and guess what? They been blending it together under the unified rules for 5 years as well and they don't even have a single fight.
How many people were doing that in the early 2000s?
In the early 00s you could get away with allot more, everyone has become more knowledgeable as a whole and it will only increase as the youth continues to push the bar..
Not too long ago having a blackbelt under the age of 25 was extremely rare, much more common now just another example
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I think it was a mixture of things, Fedor looked physically deflated when he was in Strikeforce, he changed training camps/gyms, ditched the weight lifting routines and seemed to focus on striking more. I think he could of beaten both Hendo & Werdum if he had fought more intelligently, Bigfoot was a bad match up for him though.
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It didn't end early, lots of great fighters fall from the top in their early 30's... boxing history is full of them.
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10 years undefeated is now considered ending your prime early? The reason Fedor fell off is the same reason it happens to everyone; training at the top level for long lengths of time destroys your body. It's that simple. Some guys fade out fast because they burn themselves out; some have later career resurgences because they weren't working as hard during the beginning of their career, and/or others extend their careers via PED usage. Look at the longest lasting dudes in MMA: Vitor, Overeem and Hendo. What's the one thing they all have in common? PEDs, TRT, whatever the hell you want to call it. Fedor was busting his ass for 10 years and dominating, while none of those guys ever had a period of dominance in their entire careers.
Look at every other dominant guy and tell me they lasted that long; Anderson Silva had a strong 6 1/2 years of dominance after beating Franklin, but he was fighting weak competition comparatively and fought 2.5 times a year on average. GSP had his first big win against Sherk then a dominant 8 years, minus the Serra fluke, before the infamous Hendricks "win" and semi-retirement; he fought 2 times per year. How about Aldo? Had his first big win against Cub Swanson in 2009 followed by 6 years of dominance, 2 fights per year. Jon Jones is at 7 years, yet barely fights once a year for the last 5 years, and can hardly even beat a drug test; 1.85 fights per year.
Forget that Fedor was already fighting a top 5 ranked veteran in Babalu in just his 8th fight, I'll start a little later around Semmy Schilt in his Pride debut, which was his first big win on a big stage; he had 8 years of dominance after that where he fought 3 times a year on average, and that's even if you count the one night tournament as a single fight; going back further, he fought 3.5 times a year on average for 10 years after his debut. The only other person to reach 8 years of dominance, GSP, fought at 77% the rate that Fedor was fighting during their dominant periods, despite being 3 weight classes lower. Hell, if you took Fedor's fights per year, counting the one-night tournaments as one fight, for his entire career, even including his 3 1/2 year hiatus from the sport, it STILL works out to about 2.4 fight per year, which is more than all of them fought just during their dominant periods and on par with Anderson during his reign.
So all the people saying "he wasn't that old..." are just being stupid. He reigned longer AND fought at a higher rate than every other person considered a GOAT, and this was after his Sambo career had already been in full swing about 5 years before his pro MMA debut. So, by your logic, the primes of Aldo, Anderson, GSP, Matt Hughes, etc all ended WAY too early, considering they fought much less and reigned for shorter periods of time.
Look at every other dominant guy and tell me they lasted that long; Anderson Silva had a strong 6 1/2 years of dominance after beating Franklin, but he was fighting weak competition comparatively and fought 2.5 times a year on average. GSP had his first big win against Sherk then a dominant 8 years, minus the Serra fluke, before the infamous Hendricks "win" and semi-retirement; he fought 2 times per year. How about Aldo? Had his first big win against Cub Swanson in 2009 followed by 6 years of dominance, 2 fights per year. Jon Jones is at 7 years, yet barely fights once a year for the last 5 years, and can hardly even beat a drug test; 1.85 fights per year.
Forget that Fedor was already fighting a top 5 ranked veteran in Babalu in just his 8th fight, I'll start a little later around Semmy Schilt in his Pride debut, which was his first big win on a big stage; he had 8 years of dominance after that where he fought 3 times a year on average, and that's even if you count the one night tournament as a single fight; going back further, he fought 3.5 times a year on average for 10 years after his debut. The only other person to reach 8 years of dominance, GSP, fought at 77% the rate that Fedor was fighting during their dominant periods, despite being 3 weight classes lower. Hell, if you took Fedor's fights per year, counting the one-night tournaments as one fight, for his entire career, even including his 3 1/2 year hiatus from the sport, it STILL works out to about 2.4 fight per year, which is more than all of them fought just during their dominant periods and on par with Anderson during his reign.
So all the people saying "he wasn't that old..." are just being stupid. He reigned longer AND fought at a higher rate than every other person considered a GOAT, and this was after his Sambo career had already been in full swing about 5 years before his pro MMA debut. So, by your logic, the primes of Aldo, Anderson, GSP, Matt Hughes, etc all ended WAY too early, considering they fought much less and reigned for shorter periods of time.
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You're the one amending things. Being a small LHW is still much smaller than Fedor, who as Fedor fans love to point out has a lot of experience fighting bigger guys and should have been able to handle Hendo easily.
As for the Maldonado fight, Its not a matter of fact, its a matter of opinion. In most promotions that fight gets stopped. But it happened in Russia.
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Yeah, HW is evolved.
That's why a wild brawler who's been training for 3 years and has zero ground game just fought for the UFC title
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Fedor fans are funny
Anderson's PED usage trumps>any TRT or TUE
Also, GSP came back after 4 years and beat the consensus #1 MW in the world.
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Except everyone with a brain knows that Bisping wasn't actually the #1 MW in the world
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Size And athleticism matters.Yeah, HW is evolved.
That's why a wild brawler who's been training for 3 years and has zero ground game just fought for the UFC title
use your brain a little bit
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Yeah, gassing out in one round of throwing wild haymakers is incredible athleticism now.
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Different kind of athleticism.either you’re brain dead or just bad at trolling.Yeah, gassing out in one round of throwing wild haymakers is incredible athleticism now.
And you’re beyond brain dead if you think Ngannou isn’t athletic for a guy his size.
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I didn't change any facts. List one thing I said that was not 100% true.
The Maldonado fight wasn't stopped and is officially recorded, by everyone, as a win for Fedor. Did he look good? No. But saying "he lost" is changing fact. Again, it has no bearing in the conversation anyway, as no sane person believes a 40 year old, unranked fighter, coming back from a 3.5 year retirement is in his prime.
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Yeah, mma evolved, how so?
You still need to know striking, wrestling, grappling. Nothing has become that much more evolved.
Also to TS, you’re a dimwit for assuming all human’s age the same. They do not. Also, lol for including Hendo when he was juiced to the gills on TRT.
And another lol for saying Arlovski was his best performance.
I guess not much more can be expected from guys who started watching the sport like 3-4 years ago and think they know everything because they watched a few highlight vids on YouTube.
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Oh yeah, he's that "new breed" of athleticism that has amateur striking, no ground game and a 4 minute gas tank.
Super impressive
