5 best UFC fights of 2018 so far
Thus far, 2018 has been somewhat of an up-and-down year for the UFC, but one thing has remained pretty consistently excellent – the quality of the fights on offer inside the Octagon. Almost every show this year – with a few exceptions, hello UFC Hamburg! – has had at least one great fight worth talking about the next day.
With a further 10 UFC events set to come before the end of the year, we could be in for some more classic fights – but for now, at least, these are the best 5 UFC fights of 2018.
#5 Jimi Manuwa vs Jan Blachowicz – UFC Fight Night 127 – 03/17/2018
When a rematch between Light-Heavyweight strikers Jan Blachowicz and Jimi Manuwa was booked for Fight Night 127 in London, very few people were interested – largely because their first outing, which went down in 2015, absolutely stunk. It was a dull clinch-fest that saw Manuwa edge a decision but neither man comes away looking good.
Evidently, both men decided that wasn’t going to happen in the rematch and so they came out and gave us a tremendous three-round war worthy of making this list instead.
The early going appeared to be in favour of Manuwa, who looked set to impose his usual pot-shotting style, but Blachowicz evidently had him well scouted, and a ramrod jab allowed the Polish fighter to set up some huge combinations that had the Brit wobbly on more than one occasion in the first round.
The second round appeared to be more of the same, with Blachowicz again using his jab to set up combinations that had Manuwa in trouble. This time, however, ‘Poster Boy’ was quite happy to fire right back, and as the fight turned into a brawl for the ages, Manuwa landed a combination that left Blachowicz reeling and a head kick had him on the verge of going out. It was an unbelievable round and looked to have evened things up on the scorecards.
Both men looked exhausted in the third round and so the action slowed down somewhat – although plenty of heavy trading was still common. Blachowicz managed to impose his jab to outwork the Brit though and then used a takedown in the closing seconds to ensure he walked away with the victory.
In a fight of such quality, though, there was clearly no true loser – and it certainly erased the memories of that 2015 stinker.