Average Age by Division by Ranking (in Years)

The above table shows the average age for fighters in the category spread as of May 14, 2014.  Only male fighters with known birthdays were considered.  The trend supports some “common knowledge” in that.

• People tend to gain weight as they get older.
• A fighter’s prime is in the late 20’s to early 30’s.

Does it support the: “Age isn’t as much of a factor in the heavier divisions as it is in the lighter divisions” thought?  I’m not sure.  If this was the case, I’d expect higher ranked fighters to be younger than their unranked counterparts.  But their are two issues with this — it takes accomplishments to gain a higher ranking which takes time AND an older fighter is more likely to retire or change divisions.

We see a little bit of noise at Feather and Bantam, likely because the UFC recently opened these up and some of the older heads at divisions above have trickled down.  Strawweight appears to an outlier, but I suspect this division is a last ditch effort for some older Asian Flyweights to extend their careers as it is such a terribly weak division.