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UFC 333 heads to the Middle East on Saturday for an exciting matinee card.
So while the UFC goes head-to-head with college football Saturday, it’s music to the ears of fight fans who don’t want to stay up late for the fights.
The entire card begins at 10 a.m. ET. with the prelims and the main card will go off at 2 p.m. ET.
It is headlined by two title fights with eight of the 14 bouts projected to end inside the distance.
The main event and co-main event are overwhelmingly expected to go the full 25 minutes, with each fight priced at least -275 to go to the judges’ scorecards.
UFC 333 predictions
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev
Alexander “the Great” Volkanovski has been so much fun to watch to watch in his UFC career.
The UFC legend has been in the title picture since 2018 and was the champion at featherweight dating back to 2019.
He enters his 12th consecutive title fight where he faces undefeated featherweight Movsar Evloev.
Evloev has next to no knockout power — he’s never even knocked a fighter down in his UFC career — and won all of his fights by decision.
Volkanovski is one of the smartest fighters of our time, with the ability to download and adjust to styles better than anyone we have seen.
Volkanovski has seen his durability slowly begin to deteriorate, though. He’s been knocked down in three of his last four fights and knocked out in two of his last four, including once at lightweight against Islam Makhachev.
He shouldn’t, in theory, have to worry about too much power coming from Evloev as he’s never KO’d a fighter before at this level.
However, Evloev’s takedown threat does make his striking better. There’s also the Father Time angle with Volkanovski’s chin slowing beginning to go.
Still, I’ll take the challenger this weekend on the moneyline, as he’s going to be in better shape and a better athlete thanks to his youth.
Evloev is in his prime and undefeated, I suspect he comes away victorious this weekend.
PREDICTION: Evloev moneyline (+102, Novig) | Small bet on Evloev by KO/TKO (10/1, theScore Bet)
Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili
Merab Dvalishvili attempted 26 takedowns in his last fight against Petr Yan and landed just two.
That is the story of this fight. Dvalishvili won the first time these two fought in 2023, where he landed 11 takedowns on 49 attempts.
“The Machine” Dvalishvili needs to be superhuman in terms of volume in order to win this fight.
Given his age, 35, and activity, he has the second most cage time in the UFC since 2024 — I have a hard time believing he still has that in him.
I believe that he is quickly beginning to decline after that fight against Yan, who seemed to break him.
Dvalishvili was lucky to get out without being TKO’d by Yan, and I suspect that’s how this one ends this weekend.
We’re taking Yan by KO/TKO, it would be the first time he’s ever been knocked out, but it was so close last time that we’re going for it.
PREDICTION: Yan by KO/TKO (+430, FanDuel)
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UFC 333 full card picks
Lone’er Kavanagh vs. Ramazan Temirov: Small bets on Temirov wins in round 1 (+450, FanDuel) and Kavanagh by decision (+460, Hard Rock)
Alexander Volkov vs. Rizvan Kuniev: Volkov decision (+175, BetMGM)
Aaron Pico vs. Losene Keita: Fight goes the distance (+177, Polymarket)
Azamat Murzakanov vs. Dominick Reyes: Reyes decision only (void if ends by KO or submission) (+180, DraftKings)
Nikita Krylov vs. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev: Over .5 round (-235, Polymarket) for parlays
Abus Magomedov vs. Cam Rowston: Rowston by submission (+622, Kalshi)
Grant Dawson vs. Nurullo Aliev: Dawson ML (-108, Novig)
Colby Thicknesse vs. Asaf Chopurov: Fight goes the distance (+180, FanDuel)
Abubakar Vagaev vs. Jacob Malkoun: Boring fight Malkoun by decision (+240, FanDuel)
Bolaji Oki vs. Daniel Santos: Under 1.5 rounds (+122, FanDuel)
Kody Steele vs. Noah Gugnon: Steele wins and the fight starts round two (+160, DraftKings)
Iasmin Lucindo vs. Nicolle Caliari: Fight does the distance (-250, BetMGM) for parlays
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