UFC 333 start time and fight card: Volkanovski vs. Evloev and Yan vs. Dvalishvili 3 headline Abu Dhabi

UFC 333 is underway at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, and it ends with two championship fights. Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski defends his title against undefeated challenger Movsar Evloev in the main event, while bantamweight champion Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili meet for a third time in the co-main event.

Because the event takes place in the United Arab Emirates, it runs on an unusually early schedule for U.S. viewers. This is a preview and what-we-know post: as of this writing, only the opening fight had a reported result, and the title fights had not started.

What time does UFC 333 start?

All times are Eastern on Saturday, Oct. 24, according to CBS Sports and UFC.com:

Every fight is available to Paramount+ subscribers, CBS Sports reported. The Volkanovski-Evloev title fight closes the card, so it will start some time after the 2 p.m. ET main card begins; the sources reviewed here did not list an exact walkout time.

UFC 333 fight card

According to UFC.com’s fight-by-fight preview, with betting lines from DraftKings as of Oct. 23 reported by CBS Sports:

Main card - Alexander Volkanovski (c) vs. Movsar Evloev, featherweight title (-110 / -110) - Petr Yan (c) vs. Merab Dvalishvili, bantamweight title (Yan -135, Dvalishvili +114) - Lone’er Kavanagh vs. Ramazan Temirov, flyweight - Alexander Volkov vs. Rizvan Kuniev, heavyweight - Aaron Pico vs. Losene Keita, featherweight

Prelims and early prelims - Azamat Murzakanov vs. Dominick Reyes, light heavyweight - Nikita Krylov vs. Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev, light heavyweight - Abus Magomedov vs. Cam Rowston, middleweight - Grant Dawson vs. Nurullo Aliev, lightweight - Colby Thicknesse vs. Asaf Chopurov, bantamweight - Abubakar Vagaev vs. Jacob Malkoun, middleweight - Bolaji Oki vs. Daniel Santos, featherweight - Kody Steele vs. Noah Gugnon, lightweight - Iasmin Lucindo vs. Nicolle Caliari, strawweight (catchweight after a weight miss)

Volkanovski vs. Evloev: what’s at stake

Volkanovski, a two-time featherweight champion, puts his belt on the line for the second time this year. UFC.com says he reclaimed the title in 2025 and then dominated Diego Lopes in a rematch in Sydney earlier this year for his eighth overall successful title defense. A win would set a new mark for title defenses in the division, according to the UFC’s preview.

Evloev, 32, is 20-0 and has won all 10 of his UFC fights, though none of them by finish, UFC.com noted. The preview describes him as a better striker than he gets credit for, with a relentless wrestling game.

CBS Sports reported that Volkanovski has said he is prepared to retire if things go badly but doesn’t expect that to happen, and that he believes Evloev is at a stylistic disadvantage. Evloev, for his part, is confident Volkanovski is underestimating him, according to CBS. The betting market saw the fight as a pick’em, with both men at -110.

Yan vs. Dvalishvili 3

Yan and Dvalishvili have one win each against the other. Dvalishvili won their first meeting by unanimous decision in March 2023, and Yan reclaimed the bantamweight title in their rematch at UFC 323 last December, according to UFC.com. That loss snapped a 14-fight winning streak for Dvalishvili. Both fighters have had 10 months to prepare for the trilogy.

Ramazan Temirov vs. Lone’er Kavanagh

The flyweight bout between Kavanagh and Temirov is billed as a step toward a title shot. UFC.com says Temirov returned in July after a one-year suspension for an anti-doping violation and stopped former title challenger Steve Erceg in the first round, extending his winning streak to 12 and his record to 20-3. Kavanagh beat former champion Brandon Moreno by decision in February and earned Fight of the Night in a July bout with Brandon Royval.

Nicolle Caliari’s weight miss and early result

The card opened with a strawweight bout that nearly didn’t happen. Caliari weighed in at 120.5 pounds on Friday, 4.5 pounds over the 116-pound limit for a strawweight fight, MMA Mania reported. The bout went ahead at catchweight, with Caliari forfeiting 30% of her purse to Lucindo. MMA Mania said it was Caliari’s first recorded weight miss.

Lucindo won the opener by unanimous decision after three rounds, according to Tapology’s results page. Further results had not been reported in the sources reviewed at the time of writing; this post covers the card as it stood before the main card.

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