Does age matter in the UFC?

How often the younger fighter won, with a 95% range on every row. filled: clear of the dashed linehollow: could be chanceRows resting on fewer than 30 fights are not drawn.

What this means for a fight

Age is one of the steadiest signals in UFC history. The bigger the gap, the more often the younger fighter wins, and at the widest gaps the older fighter is a clear underdog on the record alone.

Correlation is not causation. Age stands in for things this page cannot see one by one: accumulated damage, time since a fighter's best years, and the fact that older fighters facing much younger ones are often late in their careers.

The latest fights in the headline row

The most recent UFC fights counted in the headline row (10 years or more).

10 October 2026Julius Walker, 11 years younger, won against Gerald Meerschaert. The fight
10 October 2026Matheus Camilo, 12 years younger, lost against Jai Herbert. The fight
3 October 2026Eric Nolan, 12 years younger, won against Court McGee. The fight
3 October 2026Payton Talbott, 10 years younger, won against Deiveson Figueiredo. The fight

The numbers

The rows the fight-page cards use

Group	Fights	Win rate	95% range
Age gap of 2 to 3 years	2,209	56.7%	54.6 to 58.7%
Age gap of 4 to 5 years	1,653	56.2%	53.8 to 58.6%
Age gap of 6 to 7 years	1,058	60.2%	57.2 to 63.1%
Age gap of 8 to 9 years	634	65.1%	61.4 to 68.7%
Age gap of 10 years or more (headline)	508	69.5%	65.4 to 73.3%

Age gap, year by year

Group	Fights	Win rate	95% range
2 years	1,230	55.2%	52.4 to 58.0%
3 years	979	58.5%	55.4 to 61.6%
4 years	890	54.2%	50.9 to 57.4%
5 years	763	58.6%	55.1 to 62.0%
6 years	617	59.5%	55.6 to 63.3%
7 years	441	61.2%	56.6 to 65.7%
8 years	364	65.4%	60.4 to 70.1%
9 years	270	64.8%	58.9 to 70.3%
10 years	166	69.9%	62.5 to 76.3%
11 years	128	65.6%	57.0 to 73.3%
12 years	88	67.0%	56.7 to 76.0%
13+ years	126	74.6%	66.4 to 81.4%

Has it held over time? (10 years or more)

Years	Fights	Win rate	95% range
1994 to 2005	43	65.1%	50.2 to 77.6%
2006 to 2015	139	65.5%	57.2 to 72.9%
2016 to today	326	71.8%	66.7 to 76.4%

How we counted

Every UFC bout on the official statistical record from 11 March 1994 to 10 October 2026 that had a winner. Draws, no-contests and overturned results are left out of every count. Age is worked out from the date of birth on the official UFC register to the date of the bout, in whole years. Gaps under 2 years are left out as too small to call.

Anything built from a fighter's history (debuts, runs, breaks, previous meetings) only looks at UFC bouts dated before the fight, and leaves out the few names the register holds for two different fighters. A row needs at least 30 fights to be drawn or quoted; smaller rows are listed as too few to call. The 95% range is a Wilson interval: where the true rate probably sits, given how many fights there are.