Randy Couture is 43. Chuck Liddell is 37. These guys are probably the exception rather than the rule, but MMA seems to be one of those sports in which you can stay at your peak through your 30s and into your 40s. It's not the only sport like that; powerlifting records, for example, have been set by men in their forties. But most high-impact sports that require quick reactions (like basketball or football) are dominated by men in their 20s, and only the best stay around for much of their 30s. Other sports, like swimming, are even more skewed towards younger competitors, not only in terms of how long they last, but how early they become world class (Ian Thorpe could dominate the Olympics at 17, but can you imagine something like that in MMA?)
So why is this? Training for MMA is extremely strenuous. It may not have the same impact on your knees as basketball, but basketball doesn't require you to get kicked and punched and to heal from those injuries. MMA is also extremely cardio-intensive, so why can't younger guys out-hustle the Couture's and Liddell's of the world?
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Yeah, weird stuff. I wonder how much of it has to do with MMA's (that is the sport itself's) own youth. Randy is a pioneer and early-adopter of all these great ideas about training, fight strategy, etc. Maybe in 30 years all the relatively "low-hanging fruit" for improving perfomance in MMA will have been harvested, and people will peak earlier, when they "should" based on strength/physiology/etc. What I mean is, the way people train for, say, baseball, probably has changed in the past 3 years a lot less than the way they train for MMA. Maybe we're still seeing an advantage for open-minded people in this still-young sport, and somebody with a strong base in one part of the game and (more importantly) a willingness to incorporate new ideas can get a trend-setting advantage, ie Randy/Chuck win because of their ground-breaking training & fighting styles which CONTINUE to influence the way younger guys will train in the future.... Ah, hell, what do I know?
I'm just thrilled personally because Randy continues to push back the envelope before I have to start feeling "old" -- AND he keeps showing that people with receding hairlines can kick ass!
That's an excellent point. The MMA world gets turned upside down so much faster than other sports, and what's considered effective does as well.
After Silva's recent losses, it's hard to imagine that in 04 he was considered unbeatable and that in 2001 and 2002 the same was being said about Tito.
And Randy does have the most badass receding hairline in the world. He's also embracing it classily. Go with the short haircut, forget the combover. No one is fooled.
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