UFC 333 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi features two title fights, with the first card action scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Story
UFC 333 is set for Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with two title bouts at the top of the card: Alexander Volkanovski defending his featherweight belt against undefeated challenger Movsar Evloev, and Petr Yan meeting Merab Dvalishvili for a bantamweight trilogy fight.
The Volkanovski–Evloev main event comes after “The Great” successfully defended his featherweight title five times, before being unseated by Ilia Topuria, and then reclaiming the belt at UFC 314 by defeating Diego Lopes for the vacant title.
Volkanovski and Lopes had also fought previously at UFC 325, when Volkanovski won a unanimous decision, following Lopes’ victory over Jean Silva at Noche UFC.
Evloev’s shot at the featherweight title followed a win over Lerone Murphy at UFC London in March, a result that the UFC recognized as enough to earn him a crack at the belt.
In the co-main event, Yan and Dvalishvili’s UFC 333 trilogy bout is the third time they meet inside the Octagon.
Yan previously went into the first matchup with Dvalishvili after leaving “The Machine” on a three-fight skid when they first met in 2023, and after Dvalishvili defeated Henry Cejudo and then captured the bantamweight title from Sean O’Malley.
After taking some time off, Yan responded with three straight wins to set up the rematch with Dvalishvili at UFC 323, where Yan won the bantamweight title for a second time via unanimous decision.
Start times for UFC 333 have the early prelim portion scheduled to kick off at 10:00 a.m. ET, the four-fight preliminary card to follow at 12:00 p.m. ET, and the main card to begin at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Walkouts for Yan vs. Dvalishvili are expected to start around 3:30 p.m. ET, with the main event featuring Volkanovski vs. Evloev potentially following about an hour later if the co-main contest goes five rounds.
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