Usman Nurmagomedov, Parnasse, Christian Lee are such outliers in terms of age

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Usman and Christian are both still just 24. Parnasse just turned 25 on December 4th. They are all LW champions and hold 3/7 of the sport’s most prestigious LW titles. Two of them are also dual weight champs, Parnasse is the FW/LW champ and Lee is the LW/WW champ.

Why is it such a big deal there were three 24 year old LW champs in December and now three LW champs 25 or younger? Well its a big deal simply because there are not even any other 24 or 25 year olds among the top 100 ranked LW’s in the world let alone holding any of the other seven most prestigious LW titles (UFC, Bellator, PFL, ACA, ONE, KSW, RIZIN).

The top 5 ranked LW’s in the PFL, ONE, KSW are all between 28-33 years old. Same with the top 5 LW’s in ACA besides Tiger Sarnavsky who happens to be 34. Right outside the range.

All the other top 5 ranked LW’s in Bellator are between 28-33 as well besides Bendo who is 39. Same with ONE Championship.

All the top 10 ranked LW’s in the UFC are in the 28-33 range as well besides Gaethje and Dustin who are right outside the range at 34 and Chandler is 36.

There are a few 26 and 27 year olds in the top 100 rankings like Tsarukyan, McKee, Gustavo etc… but not many. Yeah there are a few LW’s in the top 100 like Chandler and Bendo who are 36 or 39 but again, not many, they are outliers.

The vast majority of top 100 ranked LWs are between 28-33 years old and somehow we just had three 24 year old champs in December despite the fact there are not even any other 24 year olds ranked in the top 100. Somehow the only three 24 year olds ranked in the top 100 all managed to become champ in a division dominated by fighters with an average age of around 30.

Christian Lee was still just 20 when he first won the ONE LW title from Aoki who had just turned 36 earlier in the month.

Usman and Parnasse just won the titles when 24 but Panasse first won the FW title when he was just 19. Lee almost won the FW ONE title when he was 19 or 20 but came up short losing a split decision.

[JackMerridew]

Usman is just being groomed to become a superstar when he takes over for Islam in the UFC.

He next few fights are going to be tough for him though going up against top Bellator veterans with man strength in the GP.

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

I believe that all the most recent UFC LW and int. LW champs like Makhachev, Oliveira, Khabib, Gaethje, Tony, Dustin, Conor and Alvareaz were all between the ages of 28-33 when they won the UFC LW or int. LW title. Alvarez was probably the oldest when hew on it at 32. RDA was still 30 when he won it. Now Pettis was still 26 when he won it. Bendo was 29.

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Its going to be interesting to see how long Makhachev can keep his win streak going and how long Usman and Umar can hang on to those undefeated records now that Usman is about to fight three tough fighters this year, Makhachev is fighting Volk and Umar wants his crack at the top 5 and the title shot.

Would be just nuts if they are able to somehow go 7-0 this year as a group given how tough the comp will be.

[JackMerridew]

@BJ_Penn_Forever

Its going to be interesting to see how long Makhachev can keep his win streak going and how long Usman and Umar can hang on to those undefeated records now that Usman is about to fight three tough fighters this year, Makhachev is fighting Volk and Umar wants his crack at the top 5 and the title shot.

Would be just nuts if they are able to somehow go 7-0 this year as a group given how tough the comp will be.

Usman probably has the best chance of losing because he’s so green. Islam is going to keep winning and so is Umar most likely. Yan is probably his toughest test.

[theexample]

I think it’s just about getting the shot that young. Many others that eventually did it could have done it earlier if given the opportunity. Great fighters are usually great almost the whole time. It’s a lot more rare for someone like Oliveira to go from mid tier in his 20s to elite in his 30s.

[JackMerridew]

@theexample

I think it’s just about getting the shot that young. Many others that eventually did it could have done it earlier if given the opportunity. Great fighters are usually great almost the whole time. It’s a lot more rare for someone like Oliveira to go from mid tier in his 20s to elite in his 30s.

Very few early 20’s fighters are as good as when they mature, get their man strength and hit their late 20’s and especially early 30’s. Jon Jones is an example of someone who was but he was also a juice head.

[theexample]

@JackMerridew

Very few early 20’s fighters are as good as when they mature, get their man strength and hit their late 20’s and especially early 30’s. Jon Jones is an example of someone who was but he was also a juice head.

I wasn’t saying they’re at their personal peak when they’re young; I was saying they’re usually already pretty elite compared to the field and could probably win titles if given title shots.

For instance, if young Khabib somehow got a shot in 2013? Probably would have beat Pettis even if he wasn’t yet quite as good as he would be in 2018. That’s an example I know you’ll immediately get .

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

So Benson Henderson has usually been a 1.5-1, 2-1 or 3-1 favorite in most of his career. If he was the dog he would be a 2-1 dog or sometimes 3-1 like vs Cowboy back in WEC or the worst dog he ever was would be vs Mamedov last year where he closed a 5-1 dog. At any rate, last night he closed a 16-1 dog vs Usman.

Bendo a 16-1 dog vs Usman tells ya all you need to know about how high the MMA world is on that 24 year old phenom. Jesus.

Didn’t take him long to get Bendo out of there either, only three other fighters have ever been able to finish Benson, that would be prime Pettis, RDA and Chandler and thats it in 18 years.

Impossible not to be impressed with Nurmagomedov after last night.

[Nick_Diaz_Army]

Usman is 24 and 17-0 now. Very exciting fighter and clearly he has a powerhouse of a team training him

[Nick_Diaz_Army]

That question-mark kick he landed on poor Bendo was wicked

[Nick_Diaz_Army]

Islam became champ right after khabib left. One has to wonder if Usman will do the same once Islam leaves the division or retires

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Hard to say. You would think there is a big possibility of that happening as UFC has not only Islam right now but they had Khabib and now have Usman’s brother Umar as well.

Its crazy that Eagle/AKA had the plan to take Khabib, Islam and Usman to the UFC and Bellator LW titles and they did it in all three situations and not only that, all three have defended their titles and the only reason Khabib lost his was retirement. Just that level of absolute dominance of the division by Khabib, Islam and Usman is crazy.

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Not only is Usman 17-0 but he 8 KO’s and 6 subs already.

When Javier Mendez would do interviews about Khabib and Islam over the past few years he would sometimes stop and say, well if you are impressed by them, hang on a minute, wait for Khabib’s cousin Usman to mature a little, he is going to be a monster. Said the kid was a phenom with the most technical striking in the whole crew.

[Nick_Diaz_Army]

Usman has been incredible so far. And Umar too. I’m very excited about Umar in the UFC BW division. The Team Eagle and AKA partnership really is a perfect matchup for one another. Javier Mendez is the perfect head coach to finish their training up once they get to the states

I know I’m a broken record but Umar & Petr Yan are on a crash course to one-another. That fight is destined to happen in the near future and it’ll be a banger

And as for Usman, I think the only thing that could hold him back is Islam having a lot reign as UFC LW champ. But he’s already mentioned going up to WW in the future so maybe he does that and opens it up for Usman one day

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Yeah I hope Umar gets to fight the top five soon. Being 16-0 in the sport, 4-0 in the UFC and 27, its obviously time.

Yan has a tough test here tonight, rooting for him.

As far as Islam goes, man I’m not sure he does head to WW and I don’t know how long he sticks around. He is 31 but he turned pro when he was still just 19 years old so I could see him wanting to retire on top if he can defend the LW title a couple more times. Who knows. Maybe we see Islam get two more defenses of the LW title and try to set the record at 4 for most defenses in UFC LW title history. Maybe he does that and then tries to win the WW title. Time will tell.

I don’t think Islam’s reign holds Usman back at all. Usman is not even 25 years old yet. Islam will be retired before Usman goes to UFC and that is if he ever does. Usman still has 8 years left of the where most LW’s are in their prime.

The vast, vast majority of elite LWs are 27-33.

[Nick_Diaz_Army]

[Nick_Diaz_Army]

@BJ_Penn_Forever

Yan has a tough test here tonight, rooting for him.

When chael did his official prediction he picked Merab to win the same way he won against Aldo

If he wall and stalls for 25 minutes again Yan I might chuck my remote at my tv screen

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Would be very difficult for a group of cousins/brothers to replicate that.

Islam has already lost but its gonna be real interesting to see how long the Nurmagomedov family can keep that undefeated pro record like that. The challenges ahead for Usman and Umar are gonna get real big here. I’ll be shocked as hell if they can run that record to 70-0 given the level of comp they have ahead of them.

[BJ_Penn_Forever]

Nuts to think that two brothers, a cousin and a training partner are 86-1 in pro MMA and they have captured two UFC titles and a Bellator title and have five title defenses and the 4th member of that group could be headed towards a UFC title shot in a year himself.

Never seen anything like that before in MMA.

So many ways to lose.