What does it mean?

In a great fight that boasted some very nice technical striking from two of the best strikers in MMA, Israel Adesanya came out victorious against MMA great Anderson Silva. Although Adesanya won by unanimous decision, both competitors displayed a high level of fighting. Before the fight though, people said Silva would lose to the younger opponent – but what does that mean?

When I speak about age being a factor, I am referring to age being an issue generally, not specifically to this fight. So, in the build-up to this fight, there were many who mentioned that Silva would lose to the younger opponent. If you were lucky, you’d hear people speak of Silva losing to a younger, faster and stronger opponent, but consistently, the variable of age was always brought into the conversation. This got me thinking…

I will be the first to admit that age is a factor in physical sports. However, the youngest competitors are not always the best, and the older players are not the worst. This is partly due to the fact that you usually have to be damn good to have a long career that spans into the later years for many sports. A few years back, I wrote a blog about how statistically, the younger fighter is more likely to win in a given fight. At the time, there was only one UFC champ over the age of 30, however, little did I know that it was a changing of the guard. In that year, 12 of the 14 UFC title fights were won by the younger fighter. However, that is not the full story as you had 3 people that could be argued to be among the best; these fighters were Cain Velasquez, Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey. That small sample gave a misrepresentation of the ‘younger fighter’. As these were exceptional fighters there was a lot more than just age that caused them to win the fight. Jon Jones for example was the youngest UFC champion in history and fought a few legends at the end of their career (Shogun, Vitro Belfort). This was a situation of new breed of fighter coming through rather than just some younger fighters.

When does age start being a factor? Is it 5 years older, is 10 years older? Is it a bit more complicated than just how many times you have been on earth for a complete orbit of the sun? Where I believe this misconception came from is boxing (and other fight sports). This is where you have the former great fighter who gets brought back, with the incentive of money, to get destroyed by a younger and hungrier fighter. These older fighters have had long careers with many battles and are only fighting for money. Whereas the younger fighter is fighting for much more. They want a place in history, they want a name, they want to put themselves on the map by beating a great. For me, it’s not so much about the age of the fighter but rather how many fights they have had, or how many miles their fight engine has done. As an example, Randy Couture did not get into MMA until he was 32 and was very competitive in to his early 40’s; he even won the heavyweight title at 43. As most fighters start young, they are done by their mid-30’s… if that. When you see Shogun or Big Nog, they look 10 years older than they are due to the wear and tear on their bodies after many hard fights. The body can only take so much and at some point it just does not work as well. Yes, this is an age thing, but you can have your first fight at 19 and be a wreck before you hit 30. Or in some cases you can be an athlete in another sport and cross over to MMA being a bit older and be very effective (Jacare, who is 40 this year).

It seems that when people mention the younger fighter, they think that they are faster, stronger and more powerful. Then in other cases they say that the older fighter will win as they are more experienced. So, there are more variables than just age. For age to be a factor, you need one of the fighters to have had a long career with a lot more fights than the opponent. Where it really seems to be telling is when the younger fighter is on his way up while the older fighter is on the way down (one more run at the title). Sometimes these fights are a trial by fire for the younger fighter and the experience of the older fighter comes out and they put on a great fight (Joshua v Klitchsko). Although more often than not, the less experienced fighter wins and wins big. As a fighter gets more successful it must be harder to stay hungry as the more money you have, the more comfortable you are, and a satisfied fighter is not as dangerous as a hungry fighter. The guy that is fighting to put food on the table and survive is not going to need any motivational speeches to get him to training.

Just because you are younger doesn’t mean you are going to win. In fight sports, going against someone 10 years your junior is going to be tough. That is assuming that they have the same skill as you and are just younger. Being older you may not be able to lift as much as the younger guys, you may not recover as fast but you do have experience, knowledge and technique, and that makes up for a lot. Knowing more, or having more experience counts for a lot and can more than make up for any physical advantages someone younger may have. So, let’s not right these experienced fighters off just yet as there is a lot more than just age to account for in the fight game.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor