By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC 333 was this past weekend and featured a lot of exciting fights including two championship fights. Who won and who lost? Let’s get to the rundown.
UFC 333
GOOD- Aaron Pico stops Losene Keita
Pico gets a quick takedown but Keita is quickly back to his feet. Pico lands a few punches then crushes Keita with a powerful right hand that drops him. Pico follows with more punches to force the referee to jump in to stop the fight seventy-four seconds into the first round. Wow.
Pico improves to 15-5 while Keita drops to 17-3. Good win for Pico.
GOOD- Alexander Volkov vs. Rizvan Kuniev
Volkov starts with punches while Kuniev favors kicks before mixing in some punches also. Kuniev is landing well until Volkov turns up the heat and starts landing some good strikes of his own. They clinch a bit before the first round ends. The second round begins with more powerful strikes being traded by both men. This continues throughout the second round. The third round starts with more heavy strikes being thrown and landed. Volkov is hurting Kuniev but he’s too tough to finish. The fight ends so we go to the judges to render their verdict.
Volkov wins the decision to improve to 41–11 and has won 3 straight fights while Kuniev drops to 14-4-1 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Volkov.
GOOD- Lone’er Kavanagh stops Ramazan Temirov
Temirov is throwing bombs early. Kavanagh is able to avoid some strikes but not all of them. They start trading and Kavanagh blasts Temirov and drops him with punches. Kavanagh follows up until the referee is forced to jump in to stop the fight four and a half minutes into the first round.
Kavanagh improves to 11-2 while Temirov drops to 20-4 and has his 12 fight winning streak snapped. Good win for Kavanagh.
GOOD- Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili
Yan was looking to defend his UFC Bantamweight Championship for the first time here. This is the third fight between these two, with each man holding a victory over the other.
They’re trading quick strikes early until Dvalishvili gets a takedown. Yan is right back to his feet, though, and knees the body. Dvalishvili gets another takedown and the first round ends. The second round starts with some striking exchanges before Dvalishvili gets a takedown. Yan is right back to his feet but gets taken down again. Yan again battles back to his feet but Dvalishvili is like a dog with a bone and he gets another takedown after a few tries before the second round ends. The third round starts with some good striking from Dvalishvili. Yan is returning fire and he keeps stuffing takedown attempts. Yan hurts Dvalishvili and stuffs more takedowns and this is a new fight as the third round ends.
The fourth round opens with Dvalishvili shooting for a takedown over and over but Yan fights them all off. The Machine continues to go for takedowns in between strikes but Yan turns them all back and the fourth round ends. The fifth round commences with more sharp striking exchanges in between Dvalishvili takedown attempts. This is unbelievable how many takedowns Dvalishvili is going for. And Yan is shrugging them off. What a fight. And they’re still throwing heavy leather at each other in the waning seconds of the fight. The fight ends so we go to the judges to render their verdict. Great fight.
Yan wins the decision to improve to 21-5 and has won 5 straight fights while Dvalishvili drops to 21-6. Good win for Yan.
GOOD- Alexander Volkanovski stops Movsar Evloev
Volkanovski was trying to defend his UFC Featherweight Championship for the second time in his second reign.
They start off trading kicks before mixing in punches as well. Evloev gets a takedown but Volkanovski is right back to his feet. They trade more strikes until Evloev gets another takedown. Volk is right back up but gets drug back down and the first round ends. The second round begins with Volkanovski landing some punishing strikes that force a clinch. Evloev gets another takedown but Volkanovski reverses and is on top for a moment until they stand. Volk hurts Evloev with strikes and forces him to his back. Volkanovski is hammering away with strikes and forces the referee to jump in to stop the fight with only six seconds remaining in the second round. Wow.
Volkanovski improves to 29-4 and has won 3 straight fights while Evloev is given his first career loss and is now 20-1. Good win for Volkanovski, who’s successfully defended his UFC Featherweight Championship seven times across two reigns.
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UFC 336 on January 30, 2027 will feature a title defense from UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van (18-2) as he fights Manel Kape (23-7). Kape will be looking to defend his title for the third time here.
There was a rumored fight between UFC Welterweight Champion Islam Makhachev (29-1) and Carlos Prates (24-7) but Makhachev pulled out and Dana White has said that Makhachev is holding up the division so the UFC is having an Interim UFC Welterweight Championship fight between Prates and Michael Morales (19-0).
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Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank. Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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