Welcome to the eleventh 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.
- January 2018 Year in Review
- February 2018 Year in Review
- March 2018 Year in Review
- April 2018 Year in Review
- May 2018 Year in Review
- June 2018 Year in Review
- July 2018 Year in Review
- August 2018 Year in Review
- September 2018 Year in Review
- October 2018 Year in Review
Top November Stories
11/2/2018 – Video surfaced of Stephan Bonnar being dragged out of a car and arrested for an alleged DUI offense.
11/5/2018 – RIZIN announced that Floyd Mayweather would be fighting Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa at RIZIN’s New Year’s Eve event. No rules were announced initially.
11/7/2018 – ONE Championship announced that Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez would both take place in Grand Prix Tournaments in their respective weight classes.
11/7/2018 – Floyd Mayweather came out and said that he never agreed to the RIZIN fight, despite appearing at the press conference a couple of days earlier.
11/8/2018 – Cage Fury Fighting Championship announced that CM Punk would join the commentary team for the December event to be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass.
11/13/2019 – UFC 230 pay-per-view buys came in at around 250,000.
11/15/2018 – Nick Diaz returning against Jorge Masvidal was announced for UFC 235 in March.
11/17/2018 – Strawweight Cynthia Calvillo had a scary weight cut ahead of her fight at UFC Fight Night in Buenos Aires. Calvillo was shaking and had trouble supporting herself for the weigh-in.
11/20/2018 – UFC flyweight Rachael Ostovich was allegedly beaten by her MMA fighter husband Arnold Berdon. Ostovich was hospitalized with a broken orbital bone.
11/24/2018 – Anderson Silva vs. Israel Adesanya was booked for UFC 234 in February.
11/27/2018 – Dana White had words for Liddell-Ortiz 3 promoter Oscar De La Hoya. “I heard last week, the cokehead, Oscar De La Weirdo, is talking (expletive) that I don’t have any place to tell guys when to retire,” White said (transcribed by MMAJunkie). “First of all, it’s called friendship, you (expletive) cokehead.”
11/30/2018 -After some early optimism based on Google searches, early estimates for Liddel vs. Ortiz 3 came in at around 25-30,000 buys.
11/30/2018 – ONE Championship announced they had signed Sage Northcutt.
How did things turn out?
-Mayweather did end up fighting Nasukawa in a three-round exhibition boxing match that he won by first round TKO.
-The Diaz-Masvidal fight has since been scrapped due to what appears to be a contract dispute with Diaz.
-Calvillo won her fight the day after weighing in against Poliana Botelho with a first round rear naked choke.
-Ostovich was pulled from her scheduled fight with Paige VanZant but then decided to continue with the Jan. 19 fight. Berdon was subsequently arrested and charged for the assault.
Key Fight Results
11/3/2018 – Daniel Cormier retained his heavyweight title with a second-round submission of Derrick Lewis at UFC 230.
11/10/2018 – Yair Rodriguez knocked out Chan Sung Jung with a KO of the Year blind elbow in the final second of their five-round classic at UFC’s 25th Anniversary show in Denver.
11/16/2018 – Patricio Freire retained the Bellator featherweight championship over Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 209.
11/17/2018 – Santiago Ponzinibbio defeated Neil Magny with a fourth-round knockout in the main event of UFC Buenos Aires.
11/24/2018 – Francis Ngannou won a 45 second TKO over Curtis Blaydes in the main event of UFC China.
11/24/2018 – Tito Ortiz knocked out Chuck Liddell in the first round at the pay-per-view promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
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