How important in ATG terms is the ability to not be at your peak and still win?

Boxing and MMA aren't easy sports. How many times have you gone to work and felt ill? This happens to these athletes at fight time.
Soccer/Football, NFL, baseball..teams get to regroup and play again a week later, a day later.
One on one competition there is no guarantee you will ever fight the other again. If you are sick or just "off" on that particular day, that loss might follow you the rest of your life.

BTW I understand I'm not telling you anything you don't know.:good


Is that a skill? :think It might have to do more with individual constitution and perseverance than being a skill.

Very good question. I was pondering the same thing myself with Henderson fighting the way he's fighting at his age and Fedor winning.

What makes a Holyfield still fight at his level and still threaten B level competition when some of these imposters grab an alphabet title?

 

I believe that it is essential that a boxer/mixed martial artist/ kickboxer must be conditioned perfectly in terms of emotionally, physically and mentally prepared when engaging in their fight, otherwise it be will detrimental to their success and performance.

It is also a common fact that those fighters who are in their prime are very well prepared and mentally focused to the point that they could fight no matter the circumstances e.g. broken finger, cut eye, broken nose, etc etc etc.

The ability to overcome obstacles is very important and highly underated in terms of how people think when engaging in these kinds of sports, take for example these fights Antonio Margarito vs Manny pacquiao, Rocky Marciano vs jersey joe walcott, muhammed ali vs george foreman, arturo gatti vs mickey ward, these were absolute warriors as they had no fear and had tremendous courage and strength that overwehlmed their opponents. In essence if your not in your peak and still win you must have all the talents and spirit of a warrior to win.