Fighters who were better at 30+ years old than their 20s

What about, what's his name, you know, the boxer that, can't think of his name at the moment, ermmm wait its coming Ar.. Arc.. Arch... its coming...... Archie Moore phew, nearly forgot his name.

 

Blond Ortiz

 

I do wonder if a lot of guys who seemed to be better in their 30s were just more dedicated to their craft as they aged? That really goes for most sports.

Most guys are more mature obviously as they get older, perhaps more committed along with their skills and experience gained over time made them better fighters later on.

Guys who flourished early and fizzled out are probably the opposite in that they didn't take care of their bodies and rode their natural talent and when that began to erode they had nothing to fall back on.

Bhop is a pretty good example, he was incredibly disciplined whilst also being a great talent and because of that he was able to be very successful for an extremely long period of time. He had very sharp ring iq and defensive abilities too I suppose, but there was no doubt he kept his body in terrific shape

 

I certainly think that plays an essential role in career preservation. I also think that in-ring styles have to be taken into account, with high energy pressure fighters unable to maintain their approach as long as more measured outboxers and power punchers can.

 

Bernard Hopkins aged in reverse like he was Benjamin Button.