Top MMA storylines of 2018: 1. Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov saga

A slap. A bus attack. Shattered glass. Injured fighters. An arrest. A post-fight melee.

In the end? The highest-selling UFC pay-per-view event of all time.

Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov had a year that was both infamous and incredibly lucrative. No one left UFC 229 on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas looking all that great — not McGregor, not Nurmagomedov and not the UFC. Yet, all the parties involved made a boatload of money. The event sold 2.4 million pay-per-views, obliterating the previous record of 1.6 million.

How did it end up the way it did?