5 best free-TV UFC shows of 2018

#3 UFC on Fox 30: Alvarez vs. Poirier 2 – 07/28/2018

Dustin Poirier's rematch with Eddie Alvarez was one of the year's best fights

The last time the UFC went to Calgary, Alberta, Canada was for 2012’s ill-fated UFC 149 pay-per-view.

That show was widely panned as one of the worst UFC shows of all-time, with fights falling apart due to injuries and a card full of boring decisions. Thankfully, 2018’s visit to Calgary went a whole lot better.

Headlined by a rematch between Lightweight action heroes Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier that lived up to all the expectations surrounding it – it was one of the year’s best fights, ending with Poirier destroying Alvarez with a combination – the show featured some extremely strong contests, including a major comeback win for Jose Aldo over Jeremy Stephens that saw the Brazilian pick up his first finish since his 2013 win over Chan Sung Jung.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s win over Tecia Torres was also a great fight to watch, and on the prelim card, we got action-filled fights like John Makdessi vs. Ross Pearson, Islam Makhachev vs. Kajan Johnson and Ion Cutelaba vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov.

This was probably the UFC’s best show on ‘big’ Fox since 2015’s Dos Anjos vs. Cerrone card and was undoubtedly the best Fox card of 2018.