UFC 18

UFC 18: The Road to the Heavyweight Title was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on January 8, 1999 in Kenner, Louisiana. The event was seen live on pay per view in the United States, and later released on home video.

History

The event featured a UFC Lightweight Championship bout and six other bouts. UFC 18 was technically part two of what the UFC called "The Road To The Heavyweight Title", a tournament, spanning four events, held to crown the new UFC Heavyweight Champion after the title was vacated by Randy Couture.
Part one was held at UFC Brazil, with Tsuyoshi Kosaka taking a win to advance to UFC 18. UFC 18 featured the first US appearance of MMA legend Bas Rutten, and the first appearance of the late Evan Tanner, who would go on to become the UFC Middleweight Champion.
UFC 18 marked the first card where the initials "UFC" replaced "The Ultimate Fighting Championship" in the logo and when mentioned by the announcers/commentators. The new logo used the similar character from the old logo combined with the letters UFC on the bottom.

Results

Encyclopedia awards

The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titled UFC Encyclopedia.

Fight of the Night: Bas Rutten vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
'''Submission of the Night: Evan Tanner'''