Is age nothing but a number?

I recently looked at Sherdog's top 10 MMA rankings list and updated the names here with ages. I expected that the lighter weight classes would have a younger average age because, at lighter weights, speed is a more important factor. Speed and reflexes become reduced at an earlier age than the reduction of power.

For a result, we find that heavyweight has the highest average age. Also, we find that lightweight has the lowest average age. Of course, speed isn't the only factor to consider when looking at the average age of each division. The talent pool that is available to each weight class also has a large effect on the numbers.

I have some thoughts about fighters who have changed divisions by either moving up or down in weight.

Some have succeeded when moving up from light heavyweight to heavyweight. For example, Randy Couture and Alistair Overeem. Other fighters have dropped down from light heavyweight to find success at middleweight (Chael Sonnen, Brian Stann).

However, we must also look at fighters who have not had success when moving down a division, such as Kenny Florian and Tyson Griffin (lightweight to featherweight).

I can predict many things from these numbers. Age isn't the only factor to take into account here, but I'm sure that you can follow the same line of thought as me.


Oldest: Dan Henderson (age 41)
Second Oldest: Shane Carwin (37)
Third Oldest: Anderson Silva (36)

Youngest: Dustin Poirier (22)
Second Youngest: Jon Jones, Anthony Pettis, Pat Curran, Renan Barao and Darrell Montague (all 24)


Heavyweight

Junior Dos Santos - 27
Cain Velasquez - 29
Alistair Overeem - 31
Fabricio Werdum - 34
Brock Lesnar - 34
Shane Carwin - 37
Frank Mir - 32
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - 35
Josh Barnett - 34
Daniel Cormier - 32

Oldest: Shane Carwin (37)
Youngest: Junior Dos Santos (27)

Average Age: 32.5


Light Heavyweight

Jon Jones - 24
Dan Henderson - 41
Mauricio Rua - 30
Rashad Evans - 32
Quinton Jackson - 33
Lyoto Machida - 33
Phil Davis - 27
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira - 35
Forrest Griffin - 32
Rafael Cavalcante - 31

Oldest: Dan Henderson (41)
Youngest: Jon Jones (24)

Average Age: 31.8


Middleweight

Anderson Silva - 36
Chael Sonnen - 34
Yushin Okami - 30
Mark Munoz - 33
Nate Marquardt - 32
Demian Maia - 32
Brian Stann - 31
Michael Bisping - 32
Vitor Belfort - 34
Luke Rockhold - 27

Oldest: Anderson Silva (36)
Youngest: Luke Rockhold (27)

Average Age: 32.1


Welterweight

Georges St. Pierre - 30
Jon Fitch - 33
Nick Diaz - 28
Josh Koscheck - 34
Jake Ellenberger - 26
Jake Shields - 33
Carlos Condit - 27
Johny Hendricks - 28
Martin Kampmann - 29
B.J. Penn - 33

Oldest: Josh Koscheck (34)
Youngest: Jake Ellenberger (26)

Average Age: 30.1


Lightweight

Frankie Edgar - 30
Gilbert Melendez - 29
Gray Maynard - 32
Ben Henderson - 28
Shinya Aoki - 28
Jim Miller - 28
Clay Guida - 30
Anthony Pettis - 24
Donald Cerrone - 30
Michael Chandler - 25

Oldest: Gray Maynard (32)
Youngest: Anthony Pettis (24)

Average Age: 28.4


Featherweight

Jose Aldo - 25
Hatsu Hioki - 28
Chad Mendes - 26
Pat Curran - 24
Kenny Florian - 35
Marlon Sandro - 34
Diego Nunes - 29
Dustin Poirier - 22
Bart Palaszewski - 28
Joe Warren - 35

Oldest: Kenny Florian (35)
Youngest: Dustin Poirier (22)

Average Age: 28.6


Bantamweight

Dominick Cruz - 26
Urijah Faber - 32
Joseph Benavidez - 27
Brian Bowles - 31
Scott Jorgensen - 29
Demetrious Johnson - 25
Renan Barao - 24
Miguel Torres - 30
Brad Pickett - 33
Masakatsu Ueda - 34

Oldest: Masakatsu Ueda (34)
Youngest: Renan Barao (24)

Average Age: 29.1


Flyweight

Ian McCall - 27
Jussier da Silva - 26
Yasuhiro Urushitani - 35
Mamoru Yamaguchi - 34
Darrell Montague - 24
Shinichi Kojima - 32
Yuki Shojo - 31
Kiyotaka Shimizu - 27
Louis Gaudinot - 27
Jose Maria Tome - 30

Oldest: Yasuhiro Urushitani (35)
Youngest: Darrell Montague (24)

Average Age: 29.3

Big thanks to Robert Sargent  (MMA Rising) for English editing.