Hit the Mat 01.05.09: Battling Father Time

Posted by Matt McEwen on 01.05.2009

He's one opponent that eventually beats everyone, but it seems certain fighters are better equipped to go into the late rounds against age...

Maybe you find out over time.

People you used to be faster than, stronger than, better than.....they start getting closer, and holding them off leaves you sorer and sorer, and still they eventually surpass you.

Or maybe, you find out all at once.

One day, you find out you react too slow, do not see what you once did and realize time has passed you by.

It is something that happens to everyone in one way or another, but it is more pronounced in sports, especially at the elite level. It's compounded even more when that sport is a combat sport such as mixed martial arts.

MMA itself is getting older, and with time has come the passing of it's original vanguard of stars. Be it PRIDE or the UFC, fighters who were Superman just a year or two ago are suddenly not only vulnerable but apparently fragile. Time comes for us all eventually, and it always wins in the end, but it seems a certain type of fighter is able to get into the later rounds better than others.

From day one, mixed martial artists were split into two main categories - strikers and grapplers. The uninitiated always assumes the guy who hits hardest is going to win the fight, but an experienced MMA fan will tell you that is only half the battle, and maybe even less. Royce Gracie opened the eyes of American audiences to the power of submission grappling with his early run in the UFC, and other fighters such as Ken Shamrock showed how vulnerable one dimensional fighters were against someone who trained in multiple disciplines.

Then came the third category of fighter, as freestyle and greco roman wrestlers crossed over to the cage and made names for themselves. Now, the term grappling encompasses many different sub-dsiciplines, but the main two can be boiled down to jiu jitsu and wrestling. Both involve trying to control your opponent, but it seems as if of all the disciplines that it is wrestling which is producing the longest lasting athletes at the higher levels of the sport.

Just look at the two biggest original superstars of the ZUFFA-era UFC - Randy Couture & Chuck Liddell,. Couture is obviously an aberration no matter what criteria you want to use, but he has held on to a top spot in the sport at a later age than anyone else. Just look at his fight with Lesnar - after a year long layoff and at the age of 46, he managed to last into the second round against a much larger opponent and even take him down once. Using his superior wrestling ability as a base, Couture has worked hard on his all around game, but when in trouble still relies on his strength.

Liddell has always been said to use his wrestling to keep a fight standing up, where his power and speed were big advantages. At the age of 36 in 2007 however, he started having problems. What happens when a striker who relies on punching speed starts to age? In Liddell's case, he starts getting KO'd and losing. The difference is punching speed between and elite MMA striker like Liddell and a completely untrained person is not that huge, but even half a second makes a difference in this case. The disparity between speeds is even less when it comes to trained athletes, but again, even half a second makes a huge difference. But, speed is often the first thing to go - and this includes reaction times - which makes someone who so often relied on landing first like Liddell have a quick downfall.

Makes you think Anderson Silva might have a good idea in mind about retiring by the end of the year .

The former superstars of PRIDE have not been immune to this phenomena either. In fact it might be even more pronounced.

Mirko Cro Cop entered the UFC amid huge hype, but proved to be a huge bust. Like Liddell, once a striker gets older - Cro Cop was 33 at the time of his loss to Gabriel Gonzaga - he starts getting caught by younger, faster strikers. Cheick Kongo was able to get his shots off earlier than Cro Cop when they fought, and that helped him on his way to a unanimous decision (though ball shots didn't hurt either. Except for Mirko...they hurt him).

Two other former PRIDE stars took possible steps towards irrelevancy at UFC 92. Wanderlei Silva suffered yet another brutal KO, and everything I said about Liddell and Cro Cop apply here too.

The other case is a bit more interesting.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuria has made a legend out of himself as being the guy who gets pounded, but then miraculously pulls out the victory at the last minute. That adds up over time and despite being the one declining guy I mention here who is not strictly a striker, he certainly fits the bill as possibly nearing the end. Reports of a staph infection might explain his listlessness in his loss to Mir, but age and accumulated beating also help explain his entire UFC career so far.

So, why are wrestlers more equipped for longer careers? It could be that their style is less physically damaging, as wrestlers do not often get hit in the head repeatedly like young boxers, nor do their joints take the damage of repeated submissions, nor do they get choked very often. With less mileage on them before they start their MMA careers, their bodies are just plainly in better shape.

The other side of that coin is that they are often able to avoid damage in fights. How many times have you seen a fighter with a wrestling base get hurt with punches, only to drop down for the "instinct" takedown, and recover while controlling from the top position. Being able to take control of fights like that allows fighters not only to avoid being finished in fights, but also to avoid large amounts of damage.

Of course, this isn't an exact science. If anyone has gotten older than Matt Hughes in a hurry, please let me know. What it does mean though, is that you can look at some fighters like Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck and know that they could very well be successful well into their late 30's, while fighters like Anderson Silva and Cheick Kongo could very well see a drop off in their success - or at least in the way they are attaining it.