Also in the lightweight division in April, Dustin Poirier stopped the division’s premier action hero, Justin Gaethje, to move closer to his own shot at the title, and Kevin Lee halted Edson Barboza.
As May began, that monumental news surfaced as it was announced that the UFC would be airing on ESPN beginning in 2019, putting the leading promotion in MMA on the worldwide leader in sports.
A few days later, Amanda Nunes successfully defended her women’s bantamweight title with a stoppage of Raquel Pennington in the main event of UFC 224 in Rio de Janeiro. Chile, Liverpool and Utica, New York would be the next three stops on the 2018 road trip before the Octagon rolled into the Windy City of Chicago for a UFC 225 card that produced the Fight of the Year, as Robert Whittaker outpointed Yoel Romero to take the interim UFC middleweight title.
On July 6, Michael Trizano and Brad Katona were crowned Ultimate Fighters in Las Vegas while Adesanya decisioned Brad Tavares in the TUF Finale main event. And the next night, Cormier shook up the world when he knocked out Miocic to add the heavyweight title to the light heavyweight belt in his collection.
The UFC Hall of Fame inducted another set of MMA immortals on International Fight Week, with the Class of 2018 featuring Rousey, Bruce Connal, Art Davie, Matt Serra and the first fight between Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
By the end of the summer, the great fights and performances were coming at fans in a fast and furious fashion, capped off by the August doubleheader in Los Angeles that saw Henry Cejudo upset Demetrious Johnson for the UFC flyweight title while bantamweight king TJ Dillashaw repeated his knockout victory over Cody Garbrandt in the UFC 227 main event.