A career peak can mean physical performance, competitive success or the best opposition an athlete can beat. This archive measures none of those directly. It can show how recorded win shares differ by age and which fighter won when opponents had different ages.
Fighter-side win shares
| Age Band | Records | Wins | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18-23 | 124,143 | 75,177 | 60.6 |
| 24-29 | 181,972 | 106,157 | 58.3 |
| 30-34 | 86,095 | 43,576 | 50.6 |
| 35-39 | 29,186 | 12,651 | 43.3 |
| 40-65 | 8,402 | 3,244 | 38.6 |
These are win/loss rows for athletes with a recorded birth date and a calculated age between 18 and 65. They are not the same as a head-to-head comparison between age groups: the opponent may have the same age or may lack a birth date.
Younger-versus-older matched contests
| Minimum Gap Years | Matched Contests | Younger Wins | Younger Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 145,819 | 81,780 | 56.1 |
| 3 | 87,889 | 51,805 | 58.9 |
| 8 | 27,550 | 17,701 | 64.3 |
The zero threshold includes any positive age gap. The three-year and eight-year groups overlap with that sample. Equal-age matchups are excluded.
Why this does not locate a career peak
Young newcomers, experienced contenders and older veterans face different opponents. Successful athletes may remain active longer, while others leave competition earlier. Birth-date coverage can also vary across promotions and eras. None of those selection effects is removed here.
The matched comparison shows an association with youth in this sample. It does not imply that every younger athlete is favored or that an individual should retire at a particular age. Studying a peak would require following comparable athletes over time, with measures of opponent strength and performance.
How this was calculated
Age was calculated from event date and birth date using 365.2425 days per year. The first table uses whole-year ages; the matched comparison requires both exact calculated ages to fall between 18 and 65. The stored archive contains 347,296 fighter profiles and 1,049,038 fighter-side result rows, with event dates through May 31, 2026. These are not 1,049,038 separate fights: an event can appear on both opponents’ records. Coverage and profile completeness vary. This is a description of this snapshot, not a census of the sport or a live ranking.
These two filters have slightly different age boundaries. Birth-date errors, repeated fighters, missing records and unadjusted opponent selection affect interpretation.
