MMA Year in Review 2018 Picks

John Pollock, Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, Cody Saftic from Fight Network, and Jordan Breen of Between Rounds Radio make their 2018 year-end MMA picks.

The past week, we released the MMA Year in Review 2018 Show for a look back at the past year by going through numerous categories and selecting the winners of each one.

On the audio portion, we were unable to be joined by Jordan Breen of Sherdog, but he has sent in his picks for the website and below the picks from our panel, which consists of:

John Pollock, POST Wrestling

Mike Bohn, MMA Junkie and USA Today

Cody Saftic, Fight Network & Dog or Pass Podcast

Jordan Breen, Between Rounds Radio

FIGHTER OF THE YEAR (Male)

John Pollock: Daniel Cormier

Mike Bohn: Daniel Cormier

Cody Saftic: Daniel Cormier

Jordan Breen: Daniel Cormier

FIGHTER OF THE YEAR (Female)

John Pollock: Amanda Nunes

Mike Bohn: Amanda Nunes

Cody Saftic: Amanda Nunes

Jordan Breen: Amanda Nunes

FIGHT OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero (UFC 225, June 9th)

Mike Bohn: Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje (UFC on Fox: Poirier vs. Gaethje, April 14th)

Cody Saftic: Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje (UFC on Fox: Poirier vs. Gaethje, April 14th)

Jordan Breen: Yair Rodriguez vs. Chan Sung Jung (UFC Fight Night: Korean Zombie vs. Rodriguez, Nov. 10th)

ROUND OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: Thiago Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa, Round 1

Mike Bohn: Tony Ferguson vs. Anthony Pettis, Round 2

Cody Saftic: Thiago Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa, Round 1

Jordan Breen: Thiago Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa, Round 1

BEST KNOCKOUT

John Pollock: Yair Rodriguez over Chan Sung Jung

Mike Bohn: Yair Rodriguez over Chan Sung Jung

Cody Saftic: Yair Rodriguez over Chan Sung Jung

Jordan Breen: Yair Rodriguez over Chan Sung Jung

BEST SUBMISSION

John Pollock: Paul Craig’s triangle choke on Magomed Ankalaev (UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Volkov, March 17th)

Mike Bohn: Aljamain Sterling over Cody Stamann (UFC 228, September 8th)

Cody Saftic: Ryan Hall’s heel hook on BJ Penn (UFC 232, December 29th)

Jordan Breen: Ryan Hall’s heel hook on BJ Penn (UFC 232, December 29th)

EVENT OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: UFC 229 (Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor)

Mike Bohn: UFC 229 (Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor)

Cody Saftic: UFC 221 (Yoel Romero vs. Luke Rockhold)

Jordan Breen: UFC 229 (Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor)

BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: Jon Anik

Mike Bohn: Jon Anik

Cody Saftic: Daniel Cormier

Jordan Breen: Jimmy Smith

BEST SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT

John Pollock: Elias Theodorou

Mike Bohn: Ali Abdelaziz

Cody Saftic: Nick Diaz

Jordan Breen: Ali Abdelaziz and his 5,000 accounts for his clients

MOST DISAPPOINTING FIGHTER

John Pollock: Chuck Liddell

Mike Bohn: Darren Till

Cody Saftic: Cody Garbrandt

Jordan Breen: Francis Ngannou

WORST FIGHT OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: Derrick Lewis vs. Francis Ngannou (UFC 226, July 7th)

Mike Bohn: Derrick Lewis vs. Francis Ngannou (UFC 226, July 7th)

Cody Saftic: Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell (Golden Boy MMA, November 24th)

Jordan Breen: Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell (Golden Boy MMA, November 24th)

WORST CARD OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Shogun, July 22nd

Mike Bohn: UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Shogun, July 22nd

Cody Saftic: UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Shogun, July 22nd

Jordan Breen: Golden Boy MMA: Ortiz vs. Liddell, November 24th

FAVORITE PROMOTION OF THE YEAR

John Pollock: Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series

Mike Bohn: UFC

Cody Saftic: Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series

Jordan Breen: KSW

BREAKOUT STAR OF 2019 WILL BE…

John Pollock: Tatiana Suarez

Mike Bohn: Amanda Nunes

Cody Saftic: Max Holloway

Jordan Breen: Maycee Barber

BIGGEST STORY OF 2018

John Pollock: UFC signs distribution deal with ESPN

Mike Bohn: UFC signs distribution deal with ESPN

Cody Saftic: Conor McGregor throwing a dolly through a bus window

Jordan Breen: USADA