UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi: Volkanovski knocks out Evloev in final seconds of round two to retain featherweight title

Australia's Alexander Volkanovski has once again shown why he is the featherweight champion. In the main event of UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, he retained his title by stopping Russia's Movsar Evloev by technical knockout in the very last seconds of the second round.

The scheduled five-round fight ended in the second round. A right hand from Volkanovski, followed by ground-and-pound on his fallen opponent, forced the referee to stop the contest. The official time was 4:54 — just six seconds remained in the round.

The crowd at the Etihad Arena in the capital of the United Arab Emirates roared at the finish. The champion's performance was one-sided and precise, giving his opponent almost no chance to settle into the fight.

The defeat was the first professional loss of Evloev's career. Even so, he showed full respect for the champion afterwards, saying he had said before that Alex was a great champion and that it was an honour to share the cage with him.

After the win, Volkanovski made clear he has no plans to stop yet. He said he is choosing to fight and does not have to, and that if he did not take too much damage the pair would probably keep going — so, in his words, maybe they keep going, stacking up wins for as long as he can.

In the co-main event, Russia's Petr Yan retained the bantamweight title by winning his three-fight series against Georgia's Merab Dvalishvili. 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.

Yan had beaten Dvalishvili last December to regain the title for the second time, having previously won it in July 2020 against Jose Aldo at UFC 251. This victory further cemented his superiority in the rivalry.

The flyweight division also produced a quick finish. 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 one.

At heavyweight, Russia's Alexander Volkov won a unanimous decision over Rizvan Kuniev using dominant wrestling and top control to earn his third straight win. Volkov had called for a title shot at Thursday's press conference, which may have stumped UFC CEO Dana White when addressing him. Kuniev's two-fight winning streak was snapped.

Opening the main card, Aaron Pico needed just over a minute to TKO Losene Keita of Guinea in their featherweight fight. Pico has now won back-to-back fights, while Keita has split his last four.

All told, the Abu Dhabi card was packed with finishes — a knockout in the main event, a hard scorecard win in the co-main event and a string of quick endings. Volkanovski's title retention now poses an even bigger question for the featherweight division's next challengers: who can stop this champion, and when.