But is this because older fighters actually have worse chins, or simply because they get outstruck more frequently as they age and slow down? After compiling some data, the author writes:
[T]he basic trend is clear that it takes fewer and fewer head strikes to knock down older fighters. When it comes to standup striking, it takes half as many landed strikes to knock down a fighter approaching 40, than it did when he was in his early 20?s.Here is the link again. Some food for thought as this 31-year-old prepares to leave the house to get hit by a bunch of dudes wearing small gloves. :)
Interesting article, though the conclusions seem a bit skewed. (Of course, I come to the topic with my own particular bias.)
ReplyDeleteWhat would be particularly telling is, if instead of (or in addition to) age, they used some metric of amount of previous fights.
That is, it's possible that we all have more vulnerability to being knocked out as we age, regardless of our history of head trauma. Or it may be that previous head trauma causes the vulnerability and that age just acts as a proxy variable. It would be interesting to tease those two things apart.