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Originally Posted by mineistaken
Would this still be true of floyd was 45 years old? 50?
Age factor is definitely in play as well, at least include it in the whole picture  |
The answer to that from a physiological perspective is both yes and no. Age can have various degenerative effects both physically and in the brain. However... 45? 50? It depends on his lifestyle, his diet and his training. My answer would be no. Not at all if he were training the same as usual.
Is age a factor between Mayweather and McGreggor? YES... a massive factor. Mayweather has decades of training and experience on McGreggor. Mayweather will be 3 steps ahead at all times... just as he is with every single world class boxer he faces.
Generally speaking, you don't lose skills of that which you practice regularly. You might lose a lot in other areas. For example, there are countless 70 year old surgeons (all about fine motor skills), 75 year old world class violinists, martial arts (Helio Gracie was wrecking people at 90 yrs old in BJJ), 80 year old golf pros etc etc etc. Helio Gracie might not have ever remembered where he put his shoes, but he was world class at what he did every single day until the day he died.
What we run up against in this area is more a perception than fact with regard to age. Fighters have a lifespan more because their priorities, their ambitions and their training change. Because you aren't trying to take over the world at 45 like you are at 19.... because you've been hit 10's of 1000s of times and growing increasingly weary of the training and the daily grind of maintaining world class performance.
Mirco Crocop keeps fighting (Glory, K-1 etc)... each time a little chubbier and a little slower. Not because of age... because he's taking training less and less serious and diet less and less serious. He's already achieved all his goals. Now he just needs a pay check and no longer has that drive to be the best in the world as he's been there, done that.
On a side note, autopsies reveal all the time that people die with advanced Alzheimer's, though they showed no outward signs or symptoms - these people are usually academics and people who had to go through daily life with a very high cognitive load of some sort. Your brain finds a way, when you force it to find a way. Your brain of course, controls your muscles as well. By this i mean even age coupled with a devastatingly degenerative brain disease doesn't necessarily need to affect performance.