Benoît St Denis started professionnal MMA in 2019

[Dorkman]

Even more crazy when you consider in his UFC debut he got the brakes absolutely beatin off him. Many were questioning if he was even UFC quality after that. But since that defeat not a single UFC opponent has been able to make it too 10 minutes with him.

 

[El Fernas]

Late starters can do great in mma - Poatan, DC


I think it’s better to start late than early with mma. It’s a sport the wears a man down. Aaron Pico, Rory McDonald etc

Thats a bit selective, and its LW we are talking about here, not MW and up, Pereira switched late, but the man has probably fought for years as a pro Kickboxer, at LW and below age is KEY, Poirier might outlast him imho.

 

[Vile]

This is very wrong. You're using a couple selective examples.

Islam Makhachev? Competing in Tae Kwon Do since 8, Sanda after that, Sambo since 13, amateur MMA and then pro debut at 18? Pantoja pro debut at 17, BJJ and Muay Thai competition before than? Omalley kickboxing around 16, amateur MMA debut at 18. Oliveira, Holloway amateur MMA and kickboxing at 14-15. Topuria pro debut at 18, competed in BJJ and wrestling before that. Leon began training around 17, went amateurnand then pro at 19...Leon is a late starter. Dricus? Began kickboxing at 14, Judo at 5, amateur MMA at 18 and pro at 19. Jones was a late starter at 20 but HW and LHW are very different because so shallow.

You're just so damn wrong. Umar and Usman Nurmagomedov along with Khabib began amateur MMA, Sambo and then pro MMA as early as possible. Moreno same story pro debut at 17, Charles was 16 or 17 when he went pro, Shavkat was 17 when he fought amateur and 19 when he went pro. Whittaker was 18 when he went pro but had a stellar martial arts background before. Your opinion is just crazy. With primes ending around 33, you gotta get started really soon. Most guys don't burn out the way Rory did, that's just something idiots said and morons ran with the narrative. Yadong went pro at 15, Sandhagen was kickboxing from around 16 until he transitioned to MMA around 19. I did averages for ages where fighters began training, went amateur and then pro. Almost everyone in every divisions top 10 began super young nowadays.

I would not count Jon Jones as a late starter because he wrestled both collegiate and greco-roman at school.

 

[Kevin Sorbo]

Late starters can do great in mma - Poatan, DC


I think it’s better to start late than early with mma. It’s a sport the wears a man down. Aaron Pico, Rory McDonald etc

Poatan obviously had an extensive kickboxing record and fought at the highest level of kickboxing, and DC obviously had an extensive wrestling background. So it's not like those guys had no experience in combat sports.

 

[GOATtalks]

Just stop posting man, it’s not for you

 

[GOATtalks]

had his pro debut right after turning 8 when it was legal.

I know it’s a typo but still funny, lol

 

[GOATtalks]

In 2017, while he was still in the military in Bayonne, Benoît Saint Denis began Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) with Christophe Savoca

Saint Denis appreciates BJJ and participates in several competitions, including the French championship, which he won in 2019 in gi and no-gi in the blue belt category


In September 2017, to be a sharper commando, he started boxing and fist fights with Christophe Cordier, Yoann Jacquemain and Stéphane Susperregui. He then tried MMA during the Invictus XV amateur tournament which he won in the welterweight category.

Impressed by Saint Denis' combativeness, Savoca asked Luiz Tosta, a Brazilian colleague, to take him for a week at his professional MMA club in London, the Shootfighters Gym, where Michael Page trained. The Brazilian saw BSD's potential instantly.

Savoca then invited Saint Denis to participate in a professional MMA detection session, organized in 2018 by Daniel Woirin, a French trainer renowned for having won three belts at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC ) and two at Strikeforce including Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida.

On this occasion, while he was the only amateur fighter of the evening, Saint Denis stood out among thirty fighters and Daniel Woirin invited him to join his team at the end of his contract with the army. Released from his military obligations in March 2019, Saint Denis decided to embark on a career as a professional MMA fighter.

He will face Dustin Poirier to eventually get a chance to get the gold and bring it to France

War BSD (from a proud Frenchman)

He had his first pro fight in February of 2019, when he was still in military by your story. Anyway, all of this seems a bit exaggerated and like someone said here before he had a background in Judo. He’s a great fighter, but let’s not act like he started to train yesterday

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Omelet du fromage

 

[Private Whatley]

Late starters can do great in mma - Poatan, DC


I think it’s better to start late than early with mma. It’s a sport the wears a man down. Aaron Pico, Rory McDonald etc

I’m sure others have already skewered your take, but you couldn’t have picked two worse examples in Poatan and DC; a multi-division world kickboxing champion and a two-time Olympian wrestler and team captain. We’re not talking about two ham and eggers who walked off the construction site thinking they’d give fighting a try.

 

[Vampire life]

Late starters can do great in mma - Poatan, DC


I think it’s better to start late than early with mma. It’s a sport the wears a man down. Aaron Pico, Rory McDonald etc

Mitrione did pretty good

 

[GOATtalks]

Lol, just read his wiki page. Dude’s father was a judoka and BSD started Judo at 8 years old and has a black belt in it. He was wining blue belt BJJ comps back in 2017. He also started MMA in 2017, when he was 21 years old. He’s a lifelong martial artist ffs. He’s cutting a shit ton of weight too. He used to compete at 194 lbs in BJJ back when he was just 22

 

[HuskySamoan]

I know it’s a typo but still funny, lol

I'm not changing it, Ilia was a fucking prodigy.

 

[Leonard Haid]

Allez dieu du guerre

Allez le dieu de la guerre

 

[Marko Polo]

I’m sure others have already skewered your take, but you couldn’t have picked two worse examples in Poatan and DC; a multi-division world kickboxing champion and a two-time Olympian wrestler and team captain. We’re not talking about two ham and eggers who walked off the construction site thinking they’d give fighting a try.

Yeah no shit! Brilliant insight bud.

 

[ElLunico]

And you can see it in his movements, he's not that fluid.. Its impressive he's got to where hes at in a short period of time but I'm not that impressed with his overall skills.. His tenacity and will to win is what makes him tough to beat

 

[Private Whatley]

Yeah no shit! Brilliant insight bud.

I know I’m brilliant. The point you were attempting to make was that guys who start late come in with less mileage. Poatan had 40 documented kickboxing fights, the majority of which contested at the world level. DC came in with at least two decades of high level wrestling competition and actually suffered renal failure while cutting weight during his second Olympic bid. Those guys came in with tons of miles on the odometer.

 

[fortheo]

And you can see it in his movements, he's not that fluid.. Its impressive he's got to where hes at in a short period of time but I'm not that impressed with his overall skills.. His tenacity and will to win is what makes him tough to beat

In the striking I see what you mean, but his grappling on the mat is high level.

 

[Marko Polo]

I know I’m brilliant. The point you were attempting to make was that guys who start late come in with less mileage. Poatan had 40 documented kickboxing fights, the majority of which contested at the world level. DC came in with at least two decades of high level wrestling competition and actually suffered renal failure while cutting weight during his second Olympic bid. Those guys came in with tons of miles on the odometer.

So you can read minds too. That wasn’t the point at all and you and about 10 other posters think the same thing. You know who else has tons of miles on the odometer? Ya mother

 

[Goutfather]

Late starters can do great in mma - Poatan, DC


I think it’s better to start late than early with mma. It’s a sport the wears a man down. Aaron Pico, Rory McDonald etc

define “late starter.” as other people pointed out, those guys had been competing in combat sports for a long time before trying mma. imo a better example is jon jones. even though he got into mma young, he didn’t have the extensive martial arts background or pedigree some other have. trying mma for the first time at 19 is a “late start” compared to some of these guys.

 

[Marko Polo]

define “late starter.” as other people pointed out, those guys had been competing in combat sports for a long time before trying mma. imo a better example is jon jones. even though he got into mma young, he didn’t have the extensive martial arts background or pedigree some other have. trying mma for the first time at 19 is a “late start” compared to some of these guys.

Someone who competes at a high level in some other 1v1 sport be it wrestling, bjj etc. Obviously a guy with no experience is probably going to find it harder, it’s crazy that I have to spell that out but here I am with 10 replies all saying the same thing.