Two titles will be up for grabs today when UFC 333 takes place today at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
After Mike Malott closed out UFC Edmonton last Saturday with a brutal knockout of Joaquin Buckley, fans will be treated to one of the more highly-anticipated fight cards of the year this weekend.
The main event features Alexander Volkanovski defending his featherweight belt against undefeated challenger Movsar Evloev, and immediately before that Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili will settle their rivalry with a trilogy bout for the UFC men’s bantamweight title.
Alexander Volkanovski Gets New Challenge at UFC 333
After Volkanovski successfully defended the featherweight belt five times and was unseated by Ilia Topuria, “The Great” reclaimed his title at UFC 314 when he bested Diego Lopes in a fight for the vacant belt.
Most fans weren’t thrilled when the UFC opted to book a rematch between the two men following Lopes’ Noche UFC victory over Jean Silva, and Volkanovski once again took a unanimous decision when the pair fought at UFC 325.
Evloev has seemingly been on the cusp of a title shot for years at this point, and a win over Lerone Murphy at UFC London in March was finally enough to convince the UFC brass that he deserved a crack at the featherweight belt.
Petr Yan & Merab Dvalishvili Set for UFC Trilogy Fight
While the UFC 333 main event features a fresh matchup, the co-main event will be the third time that fans have seen Yan and Dvalishvili share the Octagon together.
“The Machine” left Yan on a three-fight skid when they first met in 2023, and after defeating Henry Cejudo his next time out Dvalishvili claimed the bantamweight belt from Sean O’Malley and successfully defended it three times.
After taking some time off, Yan put together three-straight wins to set up a rematch with Dvalishvili at UFC 323 and won the bantamweight title for a second time when he got his hand raised via unanimous decision.
What Time Do the UFC 333 Title Fights Start?
UFC 333 is set to go ahead with a total of 14 bouts after all 28 fighters hit the scale yesterday, and the early prelim portion of the card is scheduled to kick off at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The four-fight preliminary card will follow at 12:00 p.m. ET, and the main card action will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Two title fights at the top of the bill could lengthen the overall time of the UFC 333 main card considerably, especially given that all four fighters involved in those matchups have a tendency to go the full distance when they step into the Octagon.
With the UFC typically budgeting around a half hour per non-title fight, walk outs for Yan vs. Dvalishvili should commence around 3:30 p.m. ET, and if that fight goes five rounds then Volkanovski and Evloev may not start heading to the cage until at least an hour beyond that.
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