10 UFC fights that absolutely must happen in 2018
With 2018 upon us, we’ve already had two UFC events and the third through to the eleventh are all booked complete with main events. But that still leaves a massive portion of the calendar to complete, and so it should mean a plethora of massive fights on tap.
So that leads to the question – which fights do we absolutely need to see in 2018? Which ones should the UFC absolutely break their backs to book? Some of them are rematches of earlier, classic fights, while others involve hot up-and-comers and others feature the biggest stars in the sport.
Here are the ten fights that the UFC simply must sign for 2018.
#1 Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson
Naming this fight could be seen as cheating, as the UFC has technically already booked it as the main event of UFC 223 on April 7th in Brooklyn, New York. But as we’ve seen before, any fight can fall apart, and Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson has been booked on multiple occasions before and yet it still hasn’t happened.
Hopefully, this time we’ll be luckier and two of the top three 155lbers in the world will finally step into the cage to face each other. What’s at stake? Well, right now nobody knows whether it’s the ‘undisputed’ Lightweight title currently held by Conor McGregor, or the Interim title held by Ferguson, but for true fans of MMA, it honestly doesn’t matter.
It’s still a fight that pits two of the UFC’s greatest winning streaks against each other, and it’s hard to pick a winner.
Can Khabib ground ‘El Cucuy’ and beat him down from the top position as he’s done to basically every other man he’s faced in his career? Or can Ferguson’s deadly combination of unorthodox yet precision striking and wild scrambling and dangerous chokes on the ground overcome the Dagestani? Who’s cardio will hold up over five rounds and under tremendous pressure? Hopefully, 2018 is the year we finally find out.