42+ year old active fighters still ranked in the top 25 in the world

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21

That’s actually a good point, but Bellator does have some good fighters. I’m not sure there are that many at his weight class, though.

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Another thing about Fedor, those loses to the the ADCC champ and the the Olympian were two of the three loses to the UFC titles challengers and they happened after his decade of being undefeated.

For comparison, Werdum was only able to go undefeated 5 years, Hendo went 2.5 years undefeated and Bigfoot went 3 years. So once Fedor finally lost, the three men who beat him were only able to go undefeated in their careers as long as Fedor if you combine all their three biggest undefeated streaks together despite the fact two of those men also happen to be very highly rated on the all time greats list of MMA fighters themselves. Werdum for example was 8-5 vs UFC champs and title challengers in his career compared to Fedor’s 15-3… Hendo was 12-13 vs UFC champs and challengers and Bigfoot was 3-7.

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23

No longer in the top 25 at LW but 42 year old Leo Santos fights Jared Gordon on Sat. Hoping he can snap his two fight skid despite his age. He was winning both of those fights until he wasn’t vs Guida and Dawson. Santos went 16-1 in the ten years before those loses and the only loss was to Ponzinibio up at WW on TUF.

We will never know how good Santos could have been if he was healthy and active and in the UFC LW division while in his prime. We know he was good enough to submit GSP in ADCC, TKO Kevin Lee in UFC and KO Steve Ray (current PFL finalist). Also good enough that he beat Thiago Santos at WW when they were on TUF prior to Santos moving all the way up to LHW and taking it to Jones.

Despite making his MMA debut vs prime Gomi in 2002, Santos only lost a majority decision to Gomi even while that was his debut fight. Twenty years later, still has been a top 30 UFC LW despite not being active enough.

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Though not ranked in the top 25…hats off to #65 ranked Mariusz Pudzianowski.
Riding a five fight win streak and in his last fight he KOed Michal Materla who has been ranked as high as #16 at MW, #20 at LHW and #78 at HW over the course of his career.

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I was friends with her on facebook. She seems like a real sweetheart, has a big heart, but she’s super political and big time liberal. I don’t really care about politics but I will post memes that make fun of whoever, regardless of the party so I think she blocked me b/c I posted something poking fun of Biden.

Ah well, she still is a sweetheart.

Also, Tom Fucking Brady is 45 and imo still a top 5 qb.

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Anybody who is out there getting after it at a high level after 40 has my respect

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Had a good career. Like I said, who knows how good it could have been in the UFC if he got there earlier.

He has been the only LW in their 40’s the past couple years, not an easy thing to do.

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RESPECT!

Quite impressive for Santos to have debuted in 2002 in Japan against Gomi and then to stay fighting through the UFC 2022 LW Division 20 years later.

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29

For sure.

Talking about old LWs, I see 47 year old Vener Galiev is still competing and just lost to Kokov in ACA in June and he is now 35-15 and has been fighting since 2004.

47 and still fighting and fighting guys like 29 year old Kokov who is in in there competing with and often beating the best fighters in ACA, that is crazy.

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You could make the case that Arlovski is top 25.

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Very true. I just looked at the top 25 rankings because it was fast. Fightmatrix has Arlovski at #35. They list age next to each fighters name and 1-25 are the first page of each weight class.

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Caol Uno fought in Vale Tudo Japan last year at 47 years old despite the fact he made his MMA debut in 1996 vs Sakurai.

Great career. The Shooto champ got real close to a lot of other titles…UFC, DREAM, K1 Heros, ADCC.

Mixed martial arts

Submission wrestling

Mixed martial arts record

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46 year old Melvin Manhoef is actually fighting Romero this Friday. Add Manhoef to the list of old guys still going.

I see Melvin actually had his first NHB fight in 95, I think that makes him the longest competing fighter of anyone I know.

27 years in pro kickboxing and MMA is insane.

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Not MMA but then there are Anderson and Vitor still going as well. 47 and 45. Khalidov is 42 and fought last year as well.

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Major respect! I fought at 39 and it was so much easier then going in and fighting at 41 especially the training up to the fight. And lastly sparring now at 45 is brutal the coming days after. Its the recovery after hard sessions that gets prolonged more and more…

Im thinking of going maybe 1 more veteran tournament or something but I honestly dont know how to get til fightday without breaking the body totally.

I Guess they have all the best tools for recovery and or knowledge of how far to push/ not push the body each session.

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That’s absolutely insane. That means that Melvin Manhoef started his career in between UFC 7 and UFC 8. To go from competing then to fighting Yoel Romero now is such impressive longevity. Then you double it with a Kickboxing career.

This fight with Yoel is bittersweet for me it’s another fight of good guy vs good guy and don’t want to see either guy lose especially at 45 or 46. There are some sharks now in the senior division.

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Fedor is a can

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Such a tired troll comment. Try it over at reddit or something.

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Machida has no business being anywhere near a top 25 rn.

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40

Wow…I knew Kongo was an older fighter but I did not realize he was 47.

Pretty impressive run in Bellator for being 47. Even if most of his fights are boring.

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