5 best free-TV UFC shows of 2018
With 2018 almost over, earlier in the week I put together an article detailing the best UFC pay-per-views of the year. Of course, not all of the UFC’s biggest fights are shown on pay-per-view – plenty of them take place on free television, whether that’s on the Fox Network, or Fox Sports 1.
2018 has seen a total of 26 free TV shows, and while some were undoubtedly not very good – issues surrounding a lack of big names, or a handful of dull or unmemorable fights – some were excellent, with some of the year’s best fights being featured.
Here are the 5 best free TV UFC shows of 2018.
#5 UFC Fight Night 136: Santos vs. Anders – 09/22/2018
Brazil’s second Fight Night show of 2018 took place from Sao Paulo, and nobody really expected a lot going in as a lot of the fights ended up being changed or cancelled due to injuries and other issues.
The main event of Thiago Santos vs. Eryk Anders was thrown together on a week’s notice, and the co-main event also saw a late change as Carlo Pedersoli replaced Neil Magny against Alex Oliveira.
In the end, all of that didn’t matter. Despite a lack of big names and a bunch of thrown-together fights, the athletes delivered hugely inside the Octagon, and the main card saw 5 massively entertaining fights.
The crazy war between Santos and Anders in the main event was the standout, but equally entertaining was seeing Antonio Rogerio Nogueira turn back the clock to take out Sam Alvey with a surprising knockout.
The preliminary fights on the show were also fun for the most part, with Francisco Trinaldo’s body shot TKO of Evan Dunham being a big highlight.
Overall we got 10 stoppages in 14 fights, a pretty great clip for what felt like a throwaway show going in. It just went to show the old adage that you don’t necessarily need huge names to make an entertaining UFC show.