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Cormier became fifth two-division champion
Although Daniel Cormier lost to Jon Jones, he was reinstated as the Light Heavyweight champion after the latter was banned for a positive drug test. DC soon made a title defence in January this year against Volkan Oezdemir. Weeks later it was announced that he would be part of the international fight week where he created history.
Cormier (Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight) joined the likes of BJ Penn (Welterweight and Lightweight), Randy Couture (Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight), Conor McGregor (Featherweight and Lightweight) and Georges St-Pierre (Welterweight and Middleweight) to win UFC titles in two different weight classes.
He also became the second fighter in UFC history after McGregor to hold two titles at the same time. Cormier defeated Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight title - definitely one of the best moments of 2018 as it was a first-round finish.
Mighty Mouse’s almighty reign ends
Demetrious Johnson began his title reign way back on September 22nd, 2012 at UFC 152, where he defeated Joseph Benavidez to claim the inaugural UFC Flyweight title.
Since then, Johnson defended his title a record eleven times with seven dominant finishes. He made history last year but in his 12th title defence against Henry Cejudo earlier this year Mighty Mouse's reign ended.
Although, most of the MMA fanbase and analysts scored the fight for Johnson, the judges in the Staples Centre disagreed as two of them scored 48-47 in favour of Cejudo, who claimed the decision win.
The dominant run may have come to an end, but the six-year-reign of Johnson was huge and is easily one of the most memorable moments of 2018.
Brooklyn bus attack
In April, the promotion hosted UFC 223 and it will forever be remembered for Conor McGregor's gang assault on a bus containing fighters attending a media day for the card.
Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg were forced to pull off the card at the last minute after glass from the broken bus windows cut and damaged their face and eyes respectively. The whole scene was a complete mess and McGregor had to deal with the legal process to come out of it.
The brawl erupted from a beef between Khabib Nurmagomedov and McGregor's longtime teammate Artem Lobov. This was just the initial build up to Khabib and Conor's fight.
Brock Lesnar confronts DC
From April, there were rumours that Brock Lesnar could make a return to the UFC after he completed his suspension for a positive test for PEDs in 2016. He also gained a more lucrative deal from WWE in the meantime.
The rumour started gaining substance after Lesnar re-entered the USADA's drug testing pool in 2018 and surprisingly showed up at UFC 226 to shove new UFC Heavyweight champ Cormier to set up a meeting in 2019.
Since then, Cormier defeated Derrick Lewis first and Lesnar claimed the WWE Universal title. So, the talks of the bout have cooled off for now. But there is a good chance DC fights Lesnar before he retires. If the fight is booked, there can be no doubt that it'll be one of the biggest fights of 2019.
Nurmagomedov and McGregor finally meet
McGregor ignited his rivalry with Nurmagomedov with his controversial bus attack at UFC 223 where the latter claimed the UFC Lightweight title. The rivalry between ‘The Notorious One' and ‘The Eagle' became arguably the biggest in MMA history.
There were doubts if the fight would actually happen in 2018, but UFC president Dana White and the rest of the UFC brass somehow made it happen. And at UFC 229 - the show that ended up breaking the UFC's pay-per-view buy rate record by drawing a wild 2.4m buys - the two men went to war in a fight that lived up to the hype.
McGregor tried his best, but he was outclassed by the Khabib via submission in the fourth round. Then, the brawl erupted between Nurmagomedov, McGregor and their respective teammates. And this overshadowed the fight to become one of the memorable moments in the UFC in 2018.
We will definitely see these two go at it again, but will it be in 2019, only time will tell.
Retiring and out of contract stars
The top name to call it quits was former UFC Middleweight champion Michael Bipsing. The Brit was not the only star to hang up his gloves this year as Rashad Evans, Johny Hendricks, Ricky Story, Felipe Arantes, Mike Pyle, Vitor Belfort and Bobby Green also retired in 2018.
Meanwhile, former interim heavyweight title challenger Mark Hunt ended his eight-year association with the UFC. His last fight was against Justin Willis at Adelaide on December 2. The Super Samoan, however, is expected to continue his MMA career in a different organisation.
38 done, one to go!
Former Light Heavyweight champion Jones returns to the action after a year-long suspension and will look to have a better year in 2019, hopefully as the champion.
That's not the only championship bout on the card, we have a blockbuster UFC Women's Featherweight championship fight between title holder Cris Cyborg and UFC Women's Bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes lined up.
So, the wait starts for a brilliant coupe de grace for 2018 and bang beginning for 2019.
