Top 10 Cigars of 2018 According to ‘Cigar Aficionado’

Lewis Hamilton is having a rebound year for Ferrari. Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, the 41-year-old was looking to accomplish something no driver had ever done there: earn his 10th pole position. McLaren’s Lando Norris, however, had different plans.

At the last second, Norris snatched Hamilton’s chances at making history in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying. Norris crossed the line with a qualifying time of 1:17.207 to take pole position, followed by Hamilton (1:17.219) and his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc (1:17.445). 19-year-old sensation Kimi Antonelli (1:17.479) settled for fourth place for Mercedes.

Your Saturday is pretty much booked if you’re a big boxing fan. But if not for Tyson Fury, the action would have actually started Friday morning with his heavyweight bout against Poland’s Mariusz Wach, which was NOT televised because the so-called Gypsy King opted to save the footage for the upcoming season of his Netflix series, At Home With the Furys. According to reports, Fury squared off against Wach at Max Muay Thai Stadium in Thailand, where Fury secured a seventh-round TKO. Fury’s dominant win sets up a once-in-a-generation heavyweight showdown against Anthony Joshua, provided the British boxing star keeps his end of the bargain on Saturday.

Joshua’s long-awaited return to the ring comes against Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as part of Riyadh Season. It’s Joshua’s first fight since he brutally knocked out Jake Paul at Kaseya Center in Miami in December 2025. While his fight against Paul was a sanctioned contest, Joshua’s last fight against a legitimate boxer came against Daniel Dubois in September 2024. Joshua, who was a passenger in a deadly car crash that killed one of his best friends in Nigeria days after the Paul fight, lost to Dubois via a fifth-round knockout.

I’ve been smoking cigars for two decades. I fell in love with the aroma when I walked into my first cigar lounge, Fair Oaks Cigars, in South Pasadena, California, when I was 21 years old. I remember my first stogie — Flor de las Antillas from My Father Cigars. During my early 20s and 30s, I smoked cigars religiously, at least five per week. I puffed alone in the living room, hours before getting ready to hit the town with friends. On my patio on a lazy Saturday afternoon. In the car during heavy traffic. On the rooftop lounge at the mid-high-rise building I lived in for a few years in downtown Los Angeles. Inside my loft — decked with concrete floors and walls, and exposed pipes — while watching pay-per-view boxing or a Dodgers game.

No matter the setting, smoking a cigar, to me, was the occasion. I never needed, nor do I need now, a reason to light up. It doesn’t matter if I smoke alone at a lounge or with friends on my patio; I love that, for an hour-plus, time slows down for me. Because smoking cigars can’t and shouldn’t be rushed. It’s not a cigarette. From the moment you light up to when you set down the final stub of a cigar, at least 45 minutes to an hour has passed, during which, if you’re like me, you made new friends, formed stronger bonds, and/or reflected on all that is great in your life.