After Yan’s second title, which other UFC stars reinvented themselves?
Once UFC fighters enter their 30s, there’s a feeling that they need to keep up momentum. As we saw with Usman and many others, once they lose their belt, there’s no coming back.
At UFC 323, Petr Yan didn’t just reclaim the title, he broke the myth of the linear prime. After a brutal three-fight skid and a resounding loss to Merab Dvalishvili in 2023, Yan returned with a game plan (a decision tree laid out on an iPad for us all to see) and systematically solved the Mareb conundrum.
Back to being the champ and against all odds (Yan was around +350 underdog on the likes of sport.netbet.co.uk/mma/ufc), let’s look at other fighters who found a second wind in their career.
The Ruthless renaissance
In the mid-2000s, Lawler was a terrifying but highly flawed brawler who was eventually cut from the UFC – his odds for becoming a UFC champ didn’t even exist, nobody was taking bets on it. He spent years wandering the wilderness of Strikeforce and ended up playing the role of gatekeeper/journeman. But his move to American Top Team changed everything.
Lawler stopped trying to be a head-hunter and learnt the art of energy management. He leant into a “sprawl-and-brawl” style which didn’t completely throw away who he was but it helped conserve fuel, which he would then unload on his opponent when he felt them buckling. This “Fifth Round Robbie” persona carried him back to the UFC – he then went on to get his hands on the Welterweight title in 2014.
From quitter to killer
For a decade, Charles Do Bronx Oliveira was seen as having a high ceiling. Technical, but his ceiling was held back by mental fragility. Between 2015 and 2017, he frequently missed weight and seemed to fold under pressure. Many felt like he missed his chance to do great things.
His reinvention came through a change in physics and philosophy. Moving to lightweight helped save his chin, but his adoption of the “Chute Boxe” style was even more impactful. Oliveira stopped worrying about the takedown and started weaponizing his guard. It’s an incredible guard too, and it meant he could march forward with a reckless, high-pressure Muay Thai stance (a style that many can’t use because it’s too upright, vulnerable for the takedown).
He lost the fear of falling and it turned him into the most prolific finisher in UFC history.
The Polish power reset
Jan Blachowicz’s story shows that patience can pay off. After starting his UFC run 2-4, he was reported to be one loss away from release. The issue was mostly around being too slow for the elite level. Knowing he couldn’t change this, he leaned into his “legendary Polish power.”
This meant moving away from being a volume striker to a counter-striker. He perfected the check left hook while moving back, and it was a way to use his opponents’ aggression and speed against them. It showed that a tactical shift towards using his natural attributes could take you from the cut list to the Light Heavyweight championship.
The old lion
Then there’s Glover Teixeira, who really laughed in the face of the “35-year-old cliff” meme. After a failed title shot in 2014 and a few brutal knockout losses, the MMA world actually called for his retirement.
“Once you’re knocked out like that, it changes you.”
Glover somehow leaned into this “old man strength” narrative and abandoned trying to out-strike younger opponents. He committed fully to chain wrestling and a suffocating half-guard game. He realized that while his chin may have faded, yes, but his grappling pressure was timeless and it meant he wouldn’t get struck on the chin when in these sequences.
He managed to not only have a second wind and win the title at age 42, but he was quite literally better than ever.
Petr Yan’s recent victory is a reminder that in MMA, physical attributes often peak early, but fight IQ peaks late.
