5 UFC fighters who defied Father Time
The UFC is certainly no country for old men. With every event that passes, there seems to be a call for at least one ageing fighter to hang up their gloves before it’s too late for them.
Despite the world of MMA being a young fighter’s game, there have been a handful of fighters over the years who were able to defy Father Time, and continued to thrive at the top despite their advanced age.
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Incredibly, a couple of fighters on this list remain active with the promotion today, with some continuing to pick up wins in the octagon. How much longer they can continue is anyone’s guess, but it’s fair to say that they’ve already proven the clock wrong on a number of occasions.
Here are five UFC fighters who have defied Father Time.
#5. Francisco Trinaldo – UFC welterweight
While it’s rare that fighters in the promotion defy Father Time in general, those who do tend to compete in the promotion’s heavier weight classes, where power and durability tend to be more important than speed and reflexes – two attributes that clearly tend to dull over time.
That’s why current welterweight contender Francisco Trinaldo is such an outlier. Sure, the Brazilian is not a title contender right now, nor has he ever cracked the top 10 in either weight class he’s competed in since his octagon debut in 2012, but the fact that he’s still around is, in itself, somewhat of a miracle.
‘Massaranduba’ debuted in the octagon following a stint on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil. Fans would’ve been forgiven for considering him a young prospect looking to break through onto the big stage for the first time.
However, while Trinaldo was definitely looking to break through, he was already 33 years old by the time he faced Delson Heleno in his promotional debut, and had been fighting professionally since 2006.
Since then, ‘Massaranduba’ has put together an impressive octagon record of 18-7, competing in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions and winning multiple fights in both.
More remarkably, despite tending to lose to his tougher opponents, he’s always been largely consistent, hasn’t changed his approach – which tends to be heavy on kickboxing, with some wrestling and ground attacks mixed in – and doesn’t appear to have slowed down at all over the years.
When you consider that he’s now 43 years old, the fact that he’s currently on a two-fight win streak is genuinely insane. Father Time doesn’t appear to be ready to catch him any time soon.