Volkanovski Stops Evloev to Keep Featherweight Crown at UFC 333

Australia's Alexander Volkanovski kept his Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight title on Saturday, stopping Russia's Movsar Evloev in the main event of UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi.

The finish came late in the second round of a bout scheduled for five. Volkanovski landed a right hand and followed with ground strikes, and the fight was called off at 4:54, with only six seconds left in the round. The crowd at Etihad Arena in the United Arab Emirates capital erupted.

The result handed Evloev the first professional loss of his career. He took it graciously. "Like I said, Alex is a great champion, and it was an honour to share the cage with him," Evloev said afterward.

Volkanovski indicated he is not ready to step away. "I'm choosing to do [fight]; I don't have to. I said if I didn't take too much damage, we will probably keep going. So maybe we keep going," he said.

In the co-main event, Russia's Petr Yan defended his bantamweight title against Georgia's Merab Dvalishvili, winning their three-fight series. All three judges scored it 48-47 in Yan's favor. He set a gruelling pace, mixing wrestling with dirty boxing while keeping Dvalishvili at a distance.

Yan had beaten Dvalishvili last December to regain the belt for the second time. He first won the title in July 2020 against Jose Aldo at UFC 251.

The card also produced stoppages in other divisions. At flyweight, England's Lone'er Kavanagh beat Uzbekistan's Ramazan Temirov by TKO at 4:28 of the first round, finishing with an uppercut followed by additional strikes.

In the heavyweight division, Russia's Alexander Volkov earned a unanimous decision over Rizvan Kuniev, relying on dominant wrestling and top control. It was Volkov's third straight win and ended a two-fight winning streak for Kuniev. Volkov called for a title shot at Thursday's press conference, and his request to UFC CEO Dana White appeared to leave the executive without an answer.

Aaron Pico opened the main card with a quick featherweight win, needing just over a minute to TKO Guinea's Losene Keita. Pico has now won back-to-back fights, while Keita has split his last four.