Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young. In the UFC, that statement rings true and how. MMA is a brutal sport where the old are thrown to the young in a ritualistic tradition that precedes a change in the ruling class. It’s happened in nearly every division in the UFC. A recent example would be Dricus Du Plessis’ run through middleweight. He beat Brunson, Tavares and Whittaker who could be considered the elder statesmen of the middleweight division. It’s the same story at Welterweight with Shavkat Rakhmanov laying a hellacious whupping on Stephen Thompson, while Jack Della Madalenna caved Gilbert Burns’ head in with a vicious knee and nasty follow-up punches. Even Sean Brady halted the welterweight return of Kelvin Gastelum with a 3rd round kimura.
Lightweight ain’t no joke
But, the same cannot be said about the UFC’s lightweight division. Long considered the best weight class in all of MMA, lightweight has always been a shark tank regardless of promotion. A logical reason for that could be the average human male weighs in at about 155 to 175 pounds. This is why lightweight, featherweight and even bantamweight are such competitive divisions. But back to the topic at hand, the one division where this turnover has yet to take place has been 155lbs. One would think that being an older fighter in such a difficult weight class would be a death sentence but from what we’ve seen with the top 5 is that these older fighters are holding back the tide of younger, dangerous lightweights looking to take their spot. Most fight pundits and fans thought that Rafael Fiziev would run through Justin Gaetjhe and that Mateus Gamrot would destroy Beniel Dariush, but as we all know now, both gentlemen flight off their opponents with a ferocity that showed fans and critics alike that they were there to stay.
The Diamond shines under pressure
On Saturday, we saw another up-and-comer in Benoit St Denis fall short at the finish line against a battle-tested veteran in Dustin Poirier. For the first round, it looked as if this was the turning point in Porier’s career as he was taken down and controlled. He was unable to mount any serious offence but in the second, all he needed was one opening and he put St Denis’ lights out with a picture-perfect right counter. It was a performance that the 35-year-old needed and had to dig deep to get but it just goes to show that you can teach an old dog new tricks. It’s not Dustin’s first rodeo either. After his crushing loss to Khabin, he jumped right back on the gorse and fought a gruelling battle with a surging Dan Hooker. Porier went on to batter Hooker for 5 rounds en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Where do we go from here?
We’ve got another one of these young vs old matchups coming soon as former champion Charles ‘Do Bronx’ Olivera takes on the surging Arman Tsarukyan next month at UFC 300. Can Charles turn back the hungry Tsarukyan or will Arman take out the former divisional kingpin in emphatic fashion? It’s an intriguing contest in the larger lightweight picture but in many ways is a revolt against Father Time. A refusal to lay down and die. It remains to be seen how much longer these warhorses can carry on turning away the next generation but one thing is for sure, this batch of Top 5 lightweight are a social breed, one that is slowly fading away.
