Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski made short work of Russia’s Movsar Evloev in the closing seconds of Round 2 of their scheduled five-round fight at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi.
Volkanovski (29-4 MMA) secured a TKO with a right hand, followed by ground-and-pound, to retain his UFC featherweight title.
The official time was 4:54, as the fight was called off with six seconds left to the jubilation of the Etihad Arena crowd to cap off the main event.
It was Evloev’s (20-1 MMA) first professional loss; he remained classy in defeat.
“Like I said, Alex is a great champion and it was an honor to share the cage with him,” Evloev, 32, said after the loss.
Meanwhile, Volkanovski said he wants to keep stacking wins for as long as he can. The 38-year-old has won three straight, with the first two by unanimous decision, after two losses in 2024 and 2023. His most recent win by stoppage had come in July 2023 with a third-round TKO of Yair Rodriguez.
“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,” Volkanovski said.
In the co-main event, Petr Yan won his three-fight series against Merab Dvalishvili in a Russia vs. Georgia showdown. Yan swept the judges’ scorecards 48-47, 48-47, 48-47 with a mix of a grueling pace, wrestling, dirty boxing and keeping Dvalishvili at distance to defend his UFC bantamweight title.
Yan (21-6 MMA) beat Dvalishvili (21-6 MMA) last December to regain the title for the second time, having previously won it in July 2020 against Jose Aldo at UFC 251.
The finishes kept coming, but this time in the flyweight division. England’s Lone’er Kavanagh (10-2 MMA) secured a TKO stoppage against Uzbekistan’s Ramazan Temirov (20-3 MMA) with an uppercut, followed by strikes, at 4:28 of Round 1.
At heavyweight, Russia’s Alexander Volkov won a unanimous decision over Rizvan Kuniev (29-28, 30-27, 30-27), utilizing dominant wrestling and top control to earn his third straight win. Volkov (41-11 MMA) called for a title shot at Thursday’s presser, which may have stumped UFC CEO Dana White when addressing him.
Kuniev (15-4-1, 1 NC MMA) had his two-fight winning streak snapped.
Opening the main card, Aaron Pico needed just over a minute to TKO Losene Keita of Guinea in their featherweight fight. Pico (15-5 MMA) has won back-to-back fights, while Keita (17-3 MMA) has split his last four.
–Field Level Media
