UFC 333: Volkanovski knocks out Evloev to retain featherweight title

Australia's Alexander Volkanovski has retained his featherweight title after making short work of Russia's Movsar Evloev in the UFC 333 main event in Abu Dhabi.

Key points

• Yan beat Dvalishvili last December to regain the title for the second time, having previously won it in July 2020 against Jose Aldo at UFC 251.
• Opening the main card, Aaron Pico needed just over a minute to TKO Losene Keita of Guinea in their featherweight fight.
• At heavyweight, Russia's Alexander Volkov won a unanimous decision over Rizvan Kuniev utilising dominant wrestling and top control to earn his third-straight win.
• "Like I said, Alex is a great champion and it was an honour to share the cage with him, " Evloev remarked after the loss.
• Volkanovski remarked he wants to keep stacking wins for as long as he can.

Volkanovski secured a technical knockout (TKO) with a right hand, followed by a ground-and-pound move in the closing seconds of the second round of their scheduled five-round fight on Saturday.

As the fight was called off with six seconds left to the jubilation of the Etihad Arena crowd in the United Arab Emirates capital, the official time was 4: 54.

It was Evloev's first professional loss and he remained classy in defeat.

Meanwhile, Volkanovski remarked he wants to keep stacking wins for as long as he can.

"I'm choosing to do, I don't have to. I remarked if I didn't take too much damage, we will probably keep going. So maybe we keep going, " Volkanovski remarked.

In the co-main event, Petr Yan won his three-fight series against Merab Dvalishvili in a Russia vs Georgia showdown as Yan swept the scorecards 48-47, 48-47, 48-47 with a mix of a gruelling pace, wrestling, dirty boxing and keeping Dvalishvili at distance to defend his UFC bantamweight title.

For context, the finishes kept coming, but this time in the flyweight division. England's Lone'er Kavanagh secured a TKO stoppage against Uzbekistan's Ramazan Temirov 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 utilising dominant wrestling and top control to earn his third-straight win. Volkov pressed a title shot at Thursday's presser. It may have stumped UFC CEO Dana White when addressing him. Kuniev 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. While Keita has split his last four, pico has won back-to-back fights.

In short, UFC 333: Volkanovski knocks out Evloev to retain featherweight title is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.