UFC 333 Results: Volk Is Still the King and Yan Finally Settles the Trilogy

UFC 333 results don’t get much cleaner than this. Two title fights, two champions walking out with their belts, and a sold-out Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi that set attendance and gate records for a UFC event in the emirate. Alexander Volkanovski stopped the previously unbeaten Movsar Evloev in round two. Petr Yan edged Merab Dvalishvili over five brutal rounds to close their trilogy. If you woke up early for the matinee main card, you got your money’s worth.

Let me say the quiet part out loud: I did not expect Volkanovski to finish Evloev. Nobody reasonable did. Evloev came in 20-0, six years younger, with the wrestling pedigree everyone assumed would finally crack the 38-year-old champion. Instead, Volk was the aggressor from the opening bell, and by the end of round two he was hammering away at a curled-up challenger while the ref dove in. That’s not how this was supposed to go. That’s why it’s so fun.

Volkanovski vs. Evloev: The Great Does It Again

Round one was close. Genuinely hard to score. Evloev took his time, almost too much time, trying to solve the Volkanovski puzzle while Volk popped him with the faster hands. Evloev finally shot for a takedown midway through the round and Volk popped right back up like it was nothing. That was the tell. If the wrestling wasn’t going to work, Evloev needed a plan B, and he never found one.

Round two started the same way, and then it didn’t. Volk started landing clean, cut Evloev open with ground and pound after a takedown of his own, and then uncorked the sequence that ended it. A straight left sent Evloev stumbling backward. A big right hand sat him down. Volk chased him to the canvas and hammerfisted away until referee Marc Goddard stepped in with six seconds left in the round. Official time: 4:54 of round two. TKO.

The crowd reaction was its own story. Evloev, a devout Muslim fighting in Abu Dhabi, walked out to a hero’s welcome from the roughly 18,000 in attendance. Volk, one of the most beloved fighters in the sport, got a comparatively lukewarm pop. Didn’t matter. He walked out with the belt and a $100,000 Performance of the Night check.

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My take: this is Volkanovski’s first finish since Yair Rodriguez in 2023, and it might be the most impressive win of his second title reign. He just beat an undefeated number one contender who had wins over Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen, and Aljamain Sterling, and he did it by walking him down. The win also gave Volk his ninth featherweight title-fight victory, passing Jose Aldo’s record of eight. At this point the featherweight GOAT argument is over. It’s Volk, and it’s not particularly close anymore.

After the fight, Volk went straight to the fun stuff. He wants Justin Gaethje, the new lightweight champion, in a champion-versus-champion superfight, pitched as a double retirement fight for both 38-year-olds. “That’s something I’d retire for,” he said. If they wanted to give me that opportunity, win or lose, I’d retire.” Dana White didn’t shoot it down, which for Dana, right after an event, is practically a yes. “When you’ve accomplished what he has accomplished, there’s not much we’re going to say no to.”

My take on that: book it. Volk has cleaned out featherweight twice over. Gaethje just starched Ilia Topuria to win the lightweight belt. Two 38-year-old legends, both willing to walk away afterward, no divisions held up. That’s the rare superfight that actually makes sense instead of just sounding cool on a podcast.

For Evloev, there’s no shame here, and he handled it like a pro. “He is like wine: older, wiser, stronger,” he said afterward. He’ll be back in the title picture. The road just got longer, because the guys behind him (Lerone Murphy, Aljamain Sterling, Jean Silva) are all going to want their shot now that the undefeated mystique is gone.

Yan vs. Dvalishvili: The Machine Runs Out of Rounds

The co-main was the fight of the night, literally and otherwise. Petr Yan retained the bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Merab Dvalishvili, 48-47 on all three cards, closing a trilogy that started with Merab’s win in their first meeting and Yan’s title reclaim in the second.

Merab did Merab things early. He won the first two rounds with relentless pressure, body locks, and takedown attempts. Fifty-eight of them, a UFC record. The problem was that Yan kept getting up. Every time Merab dragged him down, Yan popped back to his feet, and by the championship rounds the tide had turned. Yan’s boxing took over, he stuffed the shots, and he won the final three rounds to take the decision.

My take: this is the best version of Yan we’ve seen, and it’s not just the boxing. It’s the composure. The old Yan would have gotten frustrated by the clinch grinding. This Yan just kept getting up, kept landing the cleaner shots, and trusted the scorecards would follow. They did. And credit to Merab, gracious in defeat in a way you don’t always see after a title loss. “He beat me today. He’s the better man,” he told Daniel Cormier in the cage.

The weird postscript: Sean O’Malley publicly wondered why Yan didn’t call him out afterward. My answer to that is simple. Yan just beat Merab twice in a row and settled a trilogy. He doesn’t need to call out anybody. The line forms behind him.

Main Card Highlights: Pico Arrives, Kavanagh Crashes the Party

• Lone’er Kavanagh def. Ramazan Temirov, TKO (punches), R1, 4:28. This was a statement. Temirov walked in on a 12-fight win streak and left staring at the lights. Kavanagh took the $100,000 Performance bonus and announced himself as a real flyweight title contender. The division just got more interesting.
• Alexander Volkov def. Rizvan Kuniev, unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). Volkov turned 38 on fight night, picked up his third straight win and the 41st victory of his career, then turned to Dana White in the cage and asked, “What should I do to get a title shot?” Fair question. At some point the big man is going to have to get one.
• Aaron Pico def. Losene Keita, TKO (punches), R1, 1:14. Seventy-four seconds. Pico, stepping in after Arnold Allen pulled out, blitzed Keita and got his first UFC finish. Pico plus a $25,000 finish bonus is a nice night’s work, and a top-10 featherweight booking should be next.

Prelim Standouts: Reyes Is Back, and So Is the Violence

• Dominick Reyes def. Azamat Murzakanov, KO (head kick and punches), R1, 2:40. Vintage Reyes. A head kick wobbled Murzakanov, a picture-perfect straight left put him down, and the former title challenger is now on a two-fight win streak. He called out Paulo Costa or Khalil Rountree afterward. Either one is a banger, and Reyes fighting like this again is good for the whole light heavyweight division.
• Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev def. Nikita Krylov, TKO (knee and punches), R1, 2:38. Yakhyaev nearly had a D’Arce choke, Krylov popped his head out, and Yakhyaev answered with a knee and two punches that ended it. That’s four UFC fights, four first-round finishes, and he still hasn’t seen the three-minute mark in the promotion. At 25 years old, this kid is terrifying.
• Abus Magomedov def. Cam Rowston, submission (guillotine choke), R1, 1:44. A suffocating guillotine, over in under two minutes. Magomedov is back in the middleweight mix.

On the early prelims, Iasmin Lucindo beat Nicolle Caliari by unanimous decision in a bout that went ahead at catchweight after Caliari missed weight at 120.5 pounds and forfeited 30 percent of her purse. Kody Steele knocked out Noah Gugnon in round one, which also earned Steele a $25,000 finish bonus.

Full UFC 333 Results

Note: one outlet’s live-results list initially mislabeled the main event as a Round 1 finish. The official UFC scorecards and every other report confirm Round 2, 4:54, and that’s what’s listed above.

Bonuses and Gate

• Fight of the Night ($100,000 each): Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili
• Performance of the Night ($100,000 each): Alexander Volkanovski, Lone’er Kavanagh
• $25,000 finish bonuses: Aaron Pico, Dominick Reyes, Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev, Abus Magomedov, Kody Steele
• Attendance and gate: Sold out at Etihad Arena, roughly 18,000 fans, the highest attendance and gate for a UFC event in Abu Dhabi history according to Dana White. Over half the crowd traveled in from outside the UAE. The UFC did not publish an exact gate dollar figure.

What’s Next

Volkanovski vs. Gaethje is the fight to make, full stop. If it happens, it’s a double retirement fight between two 38-year-old champions, and one of the biggest fights of 2027. If it doesn’t, the featherweight queue (Murphy, Sterling, Silva) will sort itself out, but none of those fights carry the same juice.

For Yan, the bantamweight picture is his to control. Merab is behind him now, twice over. For Volkov, the question he asked Dana in the cage still stands: what does a 38-year-old on a three-fight win streak have to do to get a heavyweight title shot? And for Yakhyaev, the only question is how fast the UFC moves him. Four first-round finishes is not a prospect anymore. It’s a warning.

Next up on the schedule is the October 31 Fight Night in Las Vegas, headlined by Renato Moicano vs. Tom Nolan. We’ll have the recap here after that one too.

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