Alexander Volkanovski is still the champion, and he made sure everyone in Abu Dhabi knew exactly why. The featherweight king put away Movsar Evloev with a second round TKO in the UFC 333 main event, handing the previously undefeated contender his first loss. Evloev came in with a serious case to make for the title, but Volkanovski answered every bit of it with violence instead of a decision. That was a statement performance from Volkanovski, and it showed exactly why he is still the champion.
The co-main event gave the trilogy between Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili its final chapter, and Yan walked away with it, winning a unanimous decision to retain the bantamweight title. All three judges had it 48-47. Dvalishvili came out firing early and had his moments in the opening rounds, but Yan settled in, started picking his shots and shut down the wrestling. Dvalishvili was credited with 47 takedown attempts across five rounds and only landed five of them, which tells you everything about how well Yan read him on the mat. The win moves Yan to 2-1 in the series, and reaction afterward was split, plenty of people thought Merab did enough to win, but the judges didn't see it that way and Yan leaves Abu Dhabi still champion.
If you blinked during the flyweight bout between Lone'er Kavanagh and Ramazan Temirov, you missed one of the nastiest finishes of the night. Kavanagh landed a picture-perfect left uppercut that dropped Temirov, then closed the show with follow-up strikes at 4:28 of the first round. That kind of finish against a dangerous puncher like Temirov is exactly the resume-builder that gets people talking title shot, and Kavanagh's name is already being thrown into flyweight contender conversations after it.
Elsewhere on the card, we saw some exciting action. The prelims delivered some memorable moments, rounding out a card that delivered two title fights worth remembering.
What happens next for Evloev is the real question. He walked into UFC 333 as one of the most dangerous unbeaten names in the sport, and he walked out with his first loss on the record against the best version of Volkanovski we've seen in a while. As for Yan and Dvalishvili, a trilogy that's produced two wins for Yan feels about as settled as these rivalries ever get, even if plenty of fans watching Saturday still think the scorecards got it wrong.