UFC 333: Volkanovski stops Evloev, Petr Yan keeps his belt

Alexander Volkanovski is still the UFC featherweight champion. On Saturday 24 October at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, the Australian stopped Movsar Evloev by TKO at 4:54 of the second round with ground strikes. The Russian came in at 20-0, with ten wins in the UFC, and suffers the first professional loss of his career. In the other title fight, Petr Yan beat Merab Dvalishvili by unanimous decision to keep the bantamweight belt.

Volkanovski turns it around

The first round was even. Evloev, a wrestler by background, went for takedowns and landed three of seven attempts, according to ESPN statistics cited by Bleacher Report. Volkanovski took over in the second, outlanding his opponent on the feet (45 of 109 strikes against 37 of 88) before finishing the job on the ground in the closing seconds.

At 38, the Australian beat an unbeaten and younger challenger, a rare result at this level. After the fight he floated, on a podcast, a superfight with Justin Gaethje with the lightweight title on the line, a division where he has twice lost to Islam Makhachev. The UFC has announced nothing.

Yan leads the trilogy

The co-main event was the third meeting between Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili. The Georgian won the first, the Russian the second in December 2025 at UFC 323, where he took the belt. Once again the judges gave Yan the nod after five rounds. He now leads the series 2-1 and keeps his title.

The rest of the main card went quickly. Lone'er Kavanagh stopped Ramazan Temirov in round one (4:28), Aaron Pico beat Losene Keita in 1:14 and Alexander Volkov outpointed Rizvan Kuniev at heavyweight. On the prelims, Dominick Reyes, Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev and Abus Magomedov all won inside the first round, and Grant Dawson beat Nurullo Aliev on the cards.

The only French fighter on the card, Noah Gugnon, lost on the early prelims: Kody Steele stopped him by TKO at 3:54 of round one at lightweight.

The UFC's next big date for French fans is UFC 334 on 14 November in New York, where Ciryl Gane faces Josh Hokit for the heavyweight title.