What defines "prime"?

[rabn21]

Ok, heres another question. How do we determine a fighters prime if they were locked up for what we percieve as "key" years (such as Tyson) or even banned from fighting (such as Ali)? Personaly, I think in Ali's case it is pretty obvious he was at his physical peak when the goverment screwed him over. But it wasn't until his return, when some of his physical gifts had faded, that he had peaked mentaly. Opinions?

yeah I think ali definitely missed a large chunk of his physical prime when he was unable to fight. i think though he had his mental prime after that which helped him have the legendary overall career that he had. The difference between him and some of todays fighters is his career prime spanned both his mental and physical prime.

[Pullcounter]

So you would agree that age does not determine prime then?

age doesn't have anything to do with it but usually and aged fighter is not in his prime.

[JAB5239]

age doesn't have anything to do with it but usually and aged fighter is not in his prime.

Isn't this sort of a contradiction? Maybe you could be more specific my friend.