UFC 333: Volkanovski vs Evloev - Oct 24 🇦🇪

[wandshogun09]

Back in Abu Dhabi with this beauty…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Alexander Volkanovski©️vs Movsar Evloev - Featherweight Title

Petr Yan©️vs Merab Dvalishvili - Bantamweight Title 

Lone’er Kavanagh vs Ramazan Temirov 

Alexander Volkov vs Rizvan Kuniev 

Aaron Pico vs Losene Keita 

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS 
Azamat Murzakanov vs Dominick Reyes 

Nikita Krylov vs Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev 

Abus Magomedov vs Cam Rowston 

Grant Dawson vs Nurullo Aliev 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Asaf Chopurov vs Colby Thicknesse 

Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun 

Daniel Santos vs Bolaji Oki 

Noah Gugnon vs Kody Steele 

Iasmin Lucindo vs Nicolle Caliari 

 

Big fan of this card. First off, that main and co-main one-two is class. At a time when we’re seeing some weird matchmaking and title pictures are in shambles left and right, it’s nice to see a double header of title fights here that feel legit with deserving challengers. There’s a few fights scattered around the undercard that I’m not bothered about, there always is, but on the whole I think this card has some serious quality throughout. Oh and we get the early start time. 3pm prelims, 7pm main card. Get in! Don’t think it’s on Box Office either, I thought it might be, to be honest. Lovely stuff.

 

Alexander Volkanovski vs Movsar Evloev headlines. A fight that feels overdue. The right fight to make in the Featherweight division. And to be honest, a very intriguing one styles-wise. Really interested to see how these two match up because, at 145, we really haven’t seen Volk face many wrestlers. Those Islam Makhachev fights were up at Lightweight. The last time we saw Volk against a guy who was predominantly wrestling-based at 145, you’re going all the way back to 2018 and the Chad Mendes fight. Volk, at this later stage of his career, facing an undefeated guy like Evloev feels like it could be one of his toughest challenges. But we’ll see. On the flip side, on paper it’s definitely the toughest challenge of Evloev’s career to date.

A true all time great right there. When he finally lays down the gloves and it’s all done and dusted, Alexander Volkanovski is going down as one of the absolute best fighters the sport of MMA has ever seen. Undoubtedly one of the greatest Featherweights of all time and you can make a strong case that he’s number one. Wins over Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, Max Holloway three fucking times, Brian Ortega when he was still young and in form, Korean Zombie, Yair Rodriguez and Diego Lopes twice. The Holloway wins alone put him at HOF status because Holloway is also one of the greatest 145ers ever. To go 3-0 over that guy is insane. Not to mention, by their third fight Volk had him completely figured out and it was the most one-sided of their trilogy. That night was probably Volk at his absolute peak. He also deserves massive respect for his efforts up a weight class against Makhachev. Their first fight in early 2023 was a classic and to go up in weight and give another one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game such a hard fight shows how great Volk is. The rematch was a disaster but Volk also jumped in on stupidly short notice so deserves credit for that too. Regardless, his Featherweight resume speaks for itself. A living legend.

Russia’s Evloev is 32 years old, undefeated at 20-0 and has been on the UFC roster since 2019. He’s won ten straight fights in the UFC. Looking at all that in black and white, it might seem kind of odd that he’s only just now getting his first crack at UFC gold. But there’s been a few things going against him. One, he’s had quite a few setbacks with injuries over the years which has caused him to lose both time and momentum in his career. And two, the UFC brass clearly aren’t big fans of his fighting style and don’t see him as marketable. The marketability thing, whatever, he’s not the most interesting personality. I get it. And the fighting style, it’s a fact he’s a decision merchant. He’s only managed finishes in 7 of his 20 wins and he’s finished none of his 10 UFC fights. I think the reputation he has for being boring is harsh though myself. He had three really enjoyable fights in a row against Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling in about an 18 month spell in 2023-24. Then in his last fight he beat fellow undefeated top contender Lerone Murphy in the main event of the London card in March. It was close and many felt Murphy should’ve got the decision, but in the end it went to Evloev and here we are.

Volk’s 38 years old now and there’s been rumblings surrounding his more recent fights that he’s close to retiring. He’s denied it but I get the impression there’s something to it and he’s looking at this as his last run, taking it one fight at a time and his next loss might well be his last fight. Even now, in the final chapter of his career, he’s still running circles around younger guys like Diego Lopes. I think it was quite obvious the UFC wanted Lopes to win that one, which is probably why they did the unnecessary immediate rematch despite Volk already beating him clearly the first time. Bullshit and it actually pissed me off that, with Volk’s limited time left in the sport, they were wasting one of his few remaining fights on a needless rematch with Lopes when there were other more deserving contenders waiting in the wings. To be fair to Volk, even he was quite vocal in his confusion about them running the Lopes rematch instead of giving guys like Evloev and Lerone Murphy a shot. It always seemed like it was a UFC decision, not a Volk decision, to deny those guys their chance. The fact the UFC even booked that Evloev vs Murphy fight felt like they just wanted to eliminate one of them from the title race. Volk seems well up for a fresh challenge though.

“I’m very confident I beat all these guys. All of them. I look at fighting the best. If we’re talking legacy, who do we want? I want the undefeated guy that’s beat all the top guys, ‘cause I know that beating him is gonna look good on my resume. I’m confident that Movsar’s gonna keep beating all these other fighters after, so it’s gonna age well.”

“Spam wrestling with me. I know it ain’t gonna be a boring fight with me ‘cause you ain’t holding me down. I don’t want you to feel like you have to strike with me. I don’t want any excuses. I want you trying to spam wrestling. He’s obviously a winner, he knows how to win, and I want him to try that with me just to show him that, yeah, you know how to win, but not against me.” - Alexander Volkanovski

I like the edge to this talk. Seems like he really wants to prove a point in this one. The “I don’t want you to feel like you have to strike” bit is referring to Evloev’s fight against Murphy. Evloev oddly neglected his wrestling for a lot of that fight and it seemed like he did it on purpose because he knew he was unlikely to get a title shot if he won by just wrestling. I think there’s truth to it because as soon as Evloev started wrestling towards the end of the fight, he was having his way. Felt like he let the fight become much closer than it needed to be by opting to strike more, he probably could’ve won more convincingly had he stuck with his bread and butter. Sad state of affairs really when fighters feel they have to deviate from their style and strengths to appease Dana or whoever. But yeah, that’s why Volk is saying that. He wants Evloev’s A-game.

How we seeing this then? I’m probably gonna lean towards Volk but I genuinely think Evloev might give him some problems here. The Murphy fight being so close is probably gonna make people think this is an easier fight for Volk than it really is but I think it’s misleading. Like I said, I think Evloev fought more of a standup fight that night specifically because he thought it would give him a better chance of pleasing Dana and the matchmakers and securing the title shot. Now he’s got the shot, I think he’s gonna fight more to his strengths. But Volk’s not gonna be easy to take down and he’s gonna be even harder to keep down. We saw that in the first Makhachev fight and Makhachev is obviously significantly bigger than Evloev. And on the feet, Volk’s the better striker hands down. But I think this is a fascinating clash of styles. Fan opinions and predictions are probably gonna be heavily favouring Volk because he’s understandably loved and Evloev seems to be mostly disliked. But I can see this being a real battle and personally, I’m really glad this fight is happening just because it’s a different kind of opponent for Volk than we’re used to seeing. It feels fresh, which is very much welcome after Volk’s been stuck in the Lopes loop for the better part of two years.

 

Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili 3 is a phenomenal co-main event. Easily could’ve headlined a card itself this one. The way the first two thirds of their trilogy have played out so far makes this one very interesting. They’re all tied at 1-1 and both guys respective wins were in convincing and pretty dominant fashion. Then you factor in the injuries possibly effecting both in the previous fights, Merab’s reign of terror over the Bantamweight division going into the rematch and then Yan’s unexpected return to form and regaining the title, it’s been quite a rivalry so far. Now we’re gonna settle the score.

Petr Yan being the man to stop Merab’s run as champion back in December was not what I expected to happen. Merab had won their first fight in March 2023 with a complete shutout on the scorecards. Just about as lopsided as a fight gets. At the time it felt like it signalled the end of Yan’s prime. It was that one-sided a loss. Yan had been at the top of his game just a couple of years earlier and was being talked about as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game around the time he was putting on showcase performances against the likes of Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo and Cory Sandhagen. He was the champion and I think many felt he was about to go on a long reign. By the time he fought Merab though, he’d already lost the title on a disqualification and then dropped back-to-back decisions against Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley. They were close, hotly debated split decision losses though. The Merab loss was not only his third loss in a row, it was one-way traffic. As skilled as Yan was, it felt like he was never getting near that belt again. He worked his way back with wins over Song Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo in 2024 but was given an odd step down and beat Marcus McGhee in July 2025. He got the title shot rematch against Merab off the back of that win, which didn’t feel like enough. I’ll admit, I completely dismissed Yan’s chances going into that Merab rematch. He’d looked solid but unspectacular against mid-level McGhee and Merab had been on a tear and had already successfully defended his title three times between January and October 2025 with wins over Umar Nurmagomedov, O’Malley and Sandhagen. All signs seemed to be pointing towards another successful title defence for Merab, which would’ve been a record setting fourth in 2025. Didn’t pan out like that.

Merab got busted up pretty good en route to losing a clear decision and his title. It’s gonna be weird seeing Merab as the challenger again here. His reign wasn’t even that long but he was such an active champ, crammed a lot into a fairly short reign and he won his defences so clearly it felt like he had a longer run on top. He tweeted in the immediate aftermath of the loss that he’d been battling norovirus and had an injured hand going in which could’ve been factors in why it was so surprisingly one-sided but it also comes off as shameless excuse making. Who knows? One thing I did think might’ve been a factor though, and I said it at the time, is Merab possibly being burnt out going in. Like I said, he’d already defended the title three times in 10 months last year before the Yan fight in December. Take into account the consecutive training camps and three weight cuts in a relatively short timeframe and that’s a lot to put your body through. It’s one thing cramming quick turnarounds and multiple fights in on the regional scene but when we’re talking about five round title fights at the highest level in arguably the toughest weight class in the UFC, it’s insane to even try to attempt four title defences in a year. Not an excuse, Yan fought his arse off and that was the main reason it went how it did. But I can’t dismiss it as a possible factor either.

“I’m working very hard but now I’m trying to be smart. I was working hard for my last fight but I wasn’t taking breaks. I was just training and burning myself out. Petr Yan will never be an easy fight for me. I knew that but it even surprised me how good he is and how hard he hits. If I don’t prepare really, really well, he will beat the shit out of me again.” - Merab Dvalishvili

Great, great fight this. And neither have fought since that December fight. So if burnout was an issue for Merab last time, it’s not gonna be here. He’s gone from fighting four times in 2025 to not fighting at all yet in 2026. He probably needed that break so hopefully we see the absolute best of him here and hopefully Yan’s been able to build on his incredible performance last time and we get both firing on all cylinders. Yan really shocked me in that last fight. I genuinely believed that Yan’s prime had been and gone, that his best days were behind him. But that was the best performance of his career easy. Even if you buy into the Merab burnout talk, and again I do think there’s something to it, that doesn’t account for just how clear a win this was for Yan. I do think we’ll see a better Merab here but if Yan fights the way he did last time, it’s gonna be a bastard to get that belt off him on that kind of form. Can’t wait. Might be looking forward to this more than the main event, to be honest.

 

Lone’er Kavanagh vs Ramazan Temirov could be a cracker. Kavanagh fights generally are very entertaining whether he wins or loses. But man, they’re really not giving him any soft touches are they? He got knocked out by Charles Johnson then took a short notice main event against Brandon Moreno, in Mexico. He put on a bit of a masterclass there and beat Moreno. Then in his last fight in July he got subbed by Brandon Royval in another corker. Then coming off that loss, they’re throwing him in with this guy?

That’s Temirov absolutely walloping Steve Erceg in the first round on the last Abu Dhabi card back in July. He’s from Uzbekistan, 29 years old and he’s 20-2 with 13 inside the distance. He’s no joke. He’s not typically some bomber either, the way that Erceg fight played out was a bit of a surprise. From what I remember Temirov’s more of a grinder. So he might actually be even more of an awkward opponent for Kavanagh. I don’t think he’s just gonna stand and trade here. You never know though, after sparking Erceg like that he might fancy his chances on the feet.

 

Alexander Volkov vs Rizvan Kuniev. Sigh. If we must. Can’t say I’m feeling this. The one fight on the main card that I’m really not looking forward to. Kind of feel bad for Volkov. He had that controversial decision loss to Ciryl Gane at the end of 2024 where fans and media almost unanimously thought Volkov got shafted. Dana was caught on camera after the fight telling Volkov to his face that the judges “fucked him” but that they’d make it right or some bollocks. And here we are two years later. Gane’s out there blinding cunts and getting rewarded with the title and headlining MSG and Volkov’s…well, he’s piss-arsing about with Kuniev. In fairness, Volkov hasn’t done himself any favours since that Gane fight. He’s won back-to-back stinkers against Jailton Almeida and Waldo Cortes Acosta. But still. It must piss him off seeing Gane bullshit his way to gold. Can’t even be bothered to talk about Kuniev. He’s 34 years old, 14-3-1-1 and went 1-1 in rotten fights with Blaydes and Almeida before stopping Tyrell Fortune in a surprising FOTN last time out.

 

Aaron Pico vs Losene Keita opens up the main card and what a perfect way to kick things off. Easy choice as ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for me this. Can’t go wrong. And this wasn’t even the original fight. It was supposed to be Pico against Arnold Allen, which was a really good bit of matchmaking in its own right. Allen dropped out, Keita stepped in and I genuinely think this is an upgrade.

Pretty badass quote. Pico’s flaws are well documented. The man’s mega aggressive, sometimes to his own detriment. He’s 14-5 and pretty much all his losses can be chalked up to him chasing the kill so much he forgot the other guy can hit back and got caught with something nasty. It was his undoing against Lerone Murphy in his UFC debut. Offensively he’s a lot to handle but defensively he’s always been lacking. Murphy put him out with a spinning elbow. Pico did rebound nicely on the Miami card in April, taking a decision off Patricio Pitbull. He didn’t get the finish but I actually felt like it was one of Pico’s best performances. He was still aggressive but he fought a bit smarter and I think it was only for the fact Pitbull has a concrete head that it went the distance. As for Keita, he didn’t get off to the best start in the UFC either. He dropped a decision to Nathaniel Wood in his debut. Like Pico though, he came back in style…

That’s how his last fight ended. Sparked Muhammad Naimov in the first round, spotted an empty seat at cageside, hopped the fence, sat in the seat and gave himself a round of applause. One of the maddest finishing sequences you’ll ever see. That was the Paris card in early September, so although he’s stepped in on short notice here, he was straight back in camp so he should still be sharp. Love this fight. Pico’s still only just turned 30, Keita is 28. Both are coming in with some momentum and both are hungry to make a statement and are looking to get themselves into a good spot in the rankings. Feels like great timing for these two to cross paths. Got a really good feeling about this. Feels like it has all the ingredients for a bit of a crazy fight.

 

Azamat Murzakanov vs Dominick Reyes. Not too fussed about this, to be honest, but it could be alright I suppose. Murzakanov just seems too small for 205 to me, especially against these guys at the bigger end of the division. I guess his stocky frame would make it hard to cut to Middleweight though. Too big for 185, too small for 205, he’s kind of stuck in that no man’s land. He’s done alright despite that though. He went 16-0 until he ran into Paulo Costa last time out and got stopped by a headkick. I remember him doing pretty well early in that fight as well. But he’s already 37 and it kind of feels like he’s already hit his ceiling. Reyes has had a funny old career. He was undefeated and everything was going great until he got robbed against Jon Jones in 2020. That started a horrible slump and four fight losing skid. He clawed it back with a three fight streak of knockout wins which really saved his career. Then he got chinned by Carlos Ulberg in Perth last year. Then won a decision over Johnny Walker in a dud back in April. Yeah. Not sure what to expect here. There’s definitely potential for fireworks. Murzakanov can whack and he’ll obviously be looking to get back on track. Hopefully Reyes goes for it and we get something decent out of this.

 

Nikita Krylov vs Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev is actually kind of interesting to me. Krylov’s clearly nothing special. He’s 34 years old, 40-odd fights deep into his career and he’s 1-3 in his last 4. We last saw him getting his jaw nearly twatted off his head by Robert Whittaker in July. He is what he is at this point. He’s not gonna go on some miraculous surge all of a sudden. But he’s knocked around, fought some big names and he’s experienced. It’s Yakhyaev I’m interested in here. He’s Russian born but fights out of Turkey, he’s 25 years old and he’s undefeated at 10-0 with 9 coming inside the distance. So far, so good. But the knock on him has been his level of opposition. He’s 3-0 in the UFC, all first round finishes, all less than three minutes. But he’s beat Rafael Cerqueira, Brendson Ribeiro and Julius Walker. Bottom rung of the ladder jabronis. He chinned Walker in just 8 seconds last time out, for fuck’s sake. No need to rush him but it’s clear he’s needed a bit of a step up. Say what you want about Krylov but he’s definitely that. So yeah, Yakhyaev has looked a handful so far but I’m hoping Krylov can at least ask a few questions of him here.

 

Abus Magomedov vs Cam Rowston I’m neither here nor there on. Not the best, not the worst. Just midcard filler. Magomedov is 36 years old with a record of 29-7-1 and 22 finishes. If he’s remembered at all it’s probably for his loss to Sean Strickland back in 2023. That win is oddly what bagged Strickland his title shot against Israel Adesanya, and we know how that went. So I’ve held a grudge against Magomedov ever since. He’s had mixed results in the UFC, he’s going nowhere. He’s coming into this fight off a submission over Michal Oleksiejczuk in June, but Oleksiejczuk has no ground game so how impressive is that really? Rowston’s Aussie, 31 years old and 15-3 with 13 not making it to the scorecards. He’s 3-0 in the UFC so far but it’s been ham and egger city.

 

Grant Dawson vs Nurullo Aliev feels very much like the matchmakers going ‘let’s just put these two boring bastards against each other, that way one of them definitely loses’. I don’t hate the fight myself and sometimes these tunnel vision grappler vs tunnel vision grappler fights turn out to be really fun. Could also be a snoozer but I’ll give it a chance. Dawson’s 32 years old and 24-3-1. He’s actually got a really solid UFC record of 12-2-1 with good wins over the likes of Jared Gordon, Mark Madsen, Damir Ismagulov (who at one point was expected to be one of the new wave of 155ers taking over) and Carlos Diego Ferreira. He’s no bum. But his reputation as a ground based grinder has definitely held him back. I don’t think he’s that bad to watch myself. He’s coming into this fight off a submission win over Mateusz Rebecki in May. Tajikistan’s Aliev is kind of similar. He’s 25 years old, undefeated at 12-0, yet he’s never talked about as a strong prospect and he never really moves up the ladder. And it’s surely because of that grinding style. It’s been effective for him but it’s an open secret that the UFC don’t like that style. In his last two fights he’s derailed the hype train of Shem Rock and grappled Mike Davis into oblivion to the point Davis had a massive meltdown on social media about wrestling being “gay” and stuff. Quite looking forward to seeing how this goes. I’m not expecting a thriller or anything but I’m intrigued to see how their grappling matches up.

 

Asaf Chopurov vs Colby Thicknesse is a fight to keep an eye on. This is Chopurov’s UFC debut and I’m reading and hearing a lot of good things about him. Seeing lots of talk that he’s a serious prospect and one of the better signings the UFC have made this year.

He’s 24 years old, Georgian born but fights out of Russia and he’s 11-0 with 10 not needing the judges input. Apparently he also went 34-1 as an amateur. He won the UAE Warriors Bantamweight title last year and has successfully defended it twice. He’s also a teammate of Petr Yan, so it makes sense him debuting on this card and he’ll no doubt benefit from being in camp with Yan. From what I can tell his main strength is his grappling but he’s said to be very comfortable striking too, although his defence isn’t amazing yet. He definitely sounds promising. They’re not giving him a complete scrub here either. Thicknesse is no world beater but he’s 9-1, coming off a couple of wins and he’s one of Volk’s main training partners. So again, he’ll be in camp with Volk for this fight which can only help him. Definitely gonna be watching this with a lot of interest.

 

Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun is whatever. Don’t hate it, it just doesn’t move me. Vagaev signed with the UFC earlier this year and he was a decent enough pick up, I guess. Former champ in the ACA promotion in Russia, he’s 25-4, a teammate of Khamzat Chimaev and has some solid wins over recognisable names like Albert Tumenov and Michel Pereira. Not an earth shattering signing but not bad. The problem is, based on the limited stuff I’ve seen of him, he doesn’t seem very exciting to watch. Out of his 25 wins he’s only managed 5 finishes and his UFC debut win over Saygid Izagakhmaev in July was a bit of a snoozefest as I recall. Malkoun’s Australian, 31 years old, 10-3 and on a three fight win streak. Never particularly rated him really. He’s one of them that’s been on the roster since 2020 and done nothing that’s stuck in the memory in all that time. He beat our boy Gerald Meerschaert on points last time out on the Perth card in May but sadly Gerald’s looking well past it these days.

 

Daniel Santos vs Bolaji Oki should be exciting for however long it lasts. Don’t think I’ve ever been bored by either of these two yet. Santos hasn’t always been the most consistent in terms of results but he pretty much always brings it. He’s 14-3 now and coming off a TKO loss via body shot against the Korean Superboy in May. Before that though, he’d won four in a row. Belgium’s Oki’s 30 years old and 10-4 with 6 finishes. He’s had a rough run in the UFC but never a dull moment. Badly needs a win here though, he’s coming off back-to-back stoppage losses to Mason Jones (in a banger) and Manoel Sousa.

 

Noah Gugnon vs Kody Steele. I’ll be tuning in early for this. Think I’ve said it a few times on here but Steele has been great to watch so far in the UFC. He’s 31 years old and 8-1 with 6 finishes. He’s gone 1-1 so far in the UFC, a points loss to Rongzhu in a hidden gem last year, then he bounced back with a first round heel hook win over Dom Mar Fan on the Perth card in May. Gugnon is probably expected to win though. He’s French, 25 years old and 10-2 with a 100% finish rate. He fought in Ares in France previously and made his UFC debut on the Serbia card in August, submitting Milos Janicic in the first round.

 

Iasmin Lucindo vs Nicolle Caliari kicks off the night. Can’t say I’m arsed but whatever. Not a terrible fight. I remember loving Lucindo’s UFC debut fight with Yazmin Jauregui back in 2022, to be fair. Think both were debuting, both were really young and I had zero expectations going in. Turned out to be a banger. She’s still only 24 now and she has a record of 18-6 with 11 finishes. Not gonna pretend I can remember a lot about her UFC run after that Jauregui fight but she’s had some alright wins over the division’s veterans like Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Marina Rodriguez and Angela Hill. Caliari’s 29 with a 9-4 record and all 9 wins coming inside the distance. She got off to a rough start in the UFC, going 0-2, but she finally got her first Octagon win in May, subbing Shauna Bannon. Whatever that’s worth. Not expecting much from this but I’ll probably end up watching it because of the early start time.

 

 

And that’s 333.