At 18-21 most fighters are just transitioning out of their base style and developing their other skills needed for MMA.
There are some outliers though. 10-0 Edmen Shahbazyan ( 21 years old) is one of them. Already 4-0 in the UFC with three finishes. Looks to have solid foundations in everything. Booked vs Jotko for MSG and is already the 14th ranked UFC MW.
Maycee Barber is also only 21. 7-0, 6 finishes. 3-0 in UFC fights.
vitor was great at 19-20
horodecki was great in the ifl at 20
Song Yadong. Out of Alpha Male. 4-0 UFC with 3 finishes
Christian Lee is 21
Ideally in the gym learning, not fighting lol.
They should be out living their lives, getting into fighting early is a solid way to make sure you don't have a back up plan.
Might be fine if you're a world beater, but what if you're Sage Northcutt?
Over to Asia, fights a guy with almost 25 years kickboxing experience, gets blitz stepped once in the first 15 seconds, doesn't know what happened, so he gets blitzed again and gets smashed in his blind spot.
If he was better, he'd have seen it coming.
Beyond that, guys who make a name for themselves young tend to retire early, or want out before 30.
T?bikan J?dan -Song Yadong. Out of Alpha Male. 4-0 UFC with 3 finishes
I’ve seen a couple of his fights but did not know he was already 14-3, wow. He has a huge fight ahead of him too in Stamann. Crazy he started fighting pro at 16.
He is on that short list with Shahbazyan and Barber. You just don’t see it that often.
It will be cool to see how far they can go.
BJ Penn Forever -T?bikan J?dan -Song Yadong. Out of Alpha Male. 4-0 UFC with 3 finishes
I’ve seen a couple of his fights but did not know he was already 14-3, wow. He has a huge fight ahead of him too in Stamann. Crazy he started fighting pro at 16.
He is on that short list with Shahbazyan and Barber. You just don’t see it that often.
It will be cool to see how far they can go.
Agreed. I think they’re doing the right thing with Yadong by bringing him along a somewhat slowly. He’s a big talent and will probably be top 5 before long
T?bikan J?dan -BJ Penn Forever -T?bikan J?dan -Song Yadong. Out of Alpha Male. 4-0 UFC with 3 finishes
I’ve seen a couple of his fights but did not know he was already 14-3, wow. He has a huge fight ahead of him too in Stamann. Crazy he started fighting pro at 16.
He is on that short list with Shahbazyan and Barber. You just don’t see it that often.
It will be cool to see how far they can go.
Agreed. I think they’re doing the right thing with Yadong by bringing him along a somewhat slowly. He’s a big talent and will probably be top 5 before long
And I think Barber will be champ at some point
CRE -Christian Lee is 21
Man he looked great this weekend vs a tough tough fighter. Destroyed Aoki in the fight before that. He just turned 21 in August so he won the title at 20.
I think his sister won her title at 21. She just beat the champ who came down to challenge for her title, now they are 1-1. She is only 23.
Christian has lost twice to former double champ Nguyen but their second fight was a SD. That is someone he can 100% beat if they fight again.
PVZ and Sage were getting all the hype for being young and good but man, its the Lee siblings that deserve the hype.
Damn, I just looked, Christian was only 17 when he started fighting pro in ONE. You just don't see that sort of thing very often.
Looking back, he fought Nguyen when he was only 17 and only a year before Nguyen went on his run capturing the FW and LW titles and almost taking the BW title from Bibiano.
CRE -Christian Lee is 21
This thread starts and ends with the Warrior Christian Lee!
The real question is who are the best 18 - 21 year olds porn
Most that age get KTFO long before they reach their full potential.
AJ Mckee made his Bellator debut a few days after turned 20, 15-0 and 24 now, in the quarters of the GP, hopefully on a collision course with Pitbull in the finals.
Big fights booked for these kids. I'm rooting for all of them just because they are such outliers. Rooting for Pico and the Lee siblings too.
Barber fights (4-1 in UFC) Robertson tonight
Yadong fights Stamann. Dec 7th.
McKee fights Campos Dec 21th in the quarters of the GP.
Shahbazyan fights Jotko on Nov 11th at MSG.
HorseMeat4200 -Most that age get KTFO long before they reach their full potential.
MAX BLESS HOLLOWAY
Pico
Good win there for Barber. 3-0 in the UFC, will be interesting to see what is next.