UFC 333: Alexander Volkanovski earns first finish since 2023, retains featherweight title

Apr 12, 2025; Miami, Florida, UNITED STATES; Alexander Volkanovski (red gloves) reacts after defeating Diego Lopes (not pictured) during UFC 314 at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images 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. Volkanovski (29-4 MMA) secured a TKO with a right hand, followed by ground-and-pound, to retain his 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 in Abu Dhabi to cap off the UFC 333 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 said after the loss. Meanwhile, Volkanovski said he wants to keep stacking wins for as long as he can. "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 with Yan sweeping the 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