Welcome to the second of twelve installments of the 2018 MMA year in review. In the series, we will look at the biggest stories and fights from each month and reflect on how things played out as the year went on. Be sure to check out the previous installments and stay tuned as we go through each month of 2018 over the coming days.
Top February Stories
2/3/2018 – Max Holloway pulled out of his scheduled UFC 222 title defense against Frankie Edgar due to a leg injury.
2/10/2018 – Floyd Mayweather teased a potential MMA fight with Conor McGregor on social media.
2/14/2018 – Chuck Liddell teased coming out of retirement to fight Tito Ortiz. “Tito would be great if he’d even consider fighting me. I hear he wouldn’t. He doesn’t want to fight me at all. He’ll fight other people but not me, of course.”
2/21/2018 – UFC tried to put together a TJ Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt rematch to replace the UFC 222 main event but Dillashaw wasn’t prepared to take the fight due to injury.
How did things turn out?
Holloway was booked again to fight at UFC 223 against Khabib Nurmagomedov but had to pull out again due to weight cut issues. Holloway was finally able to fight in December against Brian Ortega at UFC 231.
Mayweather has teased from time to time a comeback or another McGregor fight but eventually signed to take part in a boxing exhibition for RIZIN on New Year’s Eve against Tenshin Nasukawa.
Liddell and Ortiz fought on pay-per-view in November on a show promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
Dillashaw and Garbrandt eventually did fight at UFC 227, which Dillashaw won by first round TKO. Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya was the eventual UFC 222 main event.
Key fight results
2/3/2018 – Lyoto Machida won a split decision over Eryk Anders
2/10/2018 – Yoel Romero defeated Luke Rockhold by third round at UFC 221 for the interim middleweight championship
2/24/2018 – Jeremy Stephens defeated Josh Emmett via second-round TKO at UFC on FOX 28
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