UFC 333: Volkanovski–Evloev and Yan–Merab 3 headline Abu Dhabi’s double title night
Oct. 24 at Etihad Arena stacks two championship fights: Volkanovski defends against undefeated Evloev, and Yan meets Merab Dvalishvili in a trilogy first defense.
UFC 333 on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi is the biggest booked championship night on the UFC calendar: two title fights on one card, both with unfinished business built in.
Alexander Volkanovski defends the featherweight belt against undefeated Movsar Evloev. Petr Yan puts the bantamweight title on the line in a trilogy rematch against Merab Dvalishvili — Yan’s first defense since he took the belt back.
Main card is listed for 2:00 p.m. ET on UFC.com (Abu Dhabi morning/afternoon local). Streaming runs through the UFC’s 2026 Paramount+ deal; treat linear windows as whatever the event page and Paramount list closer to fight week.
What changed Oct. 7
Updated Oct. 7: UFC.com’s UFC 333 event page now lists Aaron Pico vs. Losene Keita at featherweight. Earlier it listed Arnold Allen vs. Aaron Pico. Pico’s and Keita’s UFC.com athlete pages both list Pico vs. Keita on Oct. 24 as their upcoming fight, and Allen’s athlete page no longer lists an upcoming fight. UFC.com has not given a reason for the change. Pico is No. 11 at featherweight on UFC.com’s media-panel rankings; Keita is unranked. Both title fights are unchanged. We also corrected lines below that predated Ciryl Gane’s promotion to undisputed heavyweight champion and the results of UFC 331 and UFC 332.
Main event: Volkanovski (c) vs. Evloev — featherweight title
Volkanovski (28-4) is in his second featherweight reign. His last defense was a unanimous decision over Diego Lopes at UFC 325 on Jan. 31, 2026. Evloev, the No. 1 contender on UFC.com’s billing for this bout, enters undefeated and with the clearest title shot the division has staged since that Lopes defense.
The booking is confirmed on UFC.com’s UFC 333 event page as a featherweight title fight. Evloev’s path has been the long undefeated climb; Volkanovski’s is the veteran champ’s second-reign defense slate. Neither side needs invented narrative — the stakes are the belt and whether Evloev’s pressure wrestling and pace finally break a two-time champion who has already reinvented a title run once.
Also on the featherweight depth of the card: Aaron Pico vs. Losene Keita, listed on the same event page. Useful undercard context; not billed as a title eliminator.
Co-championship: Yan (c) vs. Merab Dvalishvili — bantamweight trilogy
Yan (20-5) reclaimed the bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Dvalishvili at UFC 323. He has not defended since. UFC 333 is the trilogy — and the first defense of this reign — against the same man he just beat for the belt.
Dvalishvili remains the No. 1 name on the other side of that rivalry. The first two meetings already settled little for fans who want a rubber match; the UFC booked it as a title fight, not as optional color. Yan walks in with zero defenses on the current reign. Merab walks in knowing the last scorecards went the other way.
Media Panel and Meta rankings still disagree on who sits behind Merab for “next after the trilogy” talk — Song Yadong vs. Sean O’Malley, depending which board you read. That split is rankings noise for later. It is not a UFC booking for Oct. 24.
What else moves on the card
UFC.com’s fight card also lists:
- Alexander Volkov vs. Rizvan Kuniev — ranked heavyweight bout (the event page bills Volkov No. 2 and Kuniev No. 7). Not a title fight. Tom Aspinall vacated the heavyweight title on Sept. 14, and UFC has since named Ciryl Gane undisputed champion, with his first defense against Josh Hokit at UFC 334 on Nov. 14. Any ranked heavyweight result here is ladder color. The promotion has not billed this bout as a title eliminator. - Lone’er Kavanagh vs. Ramazan Temirov — flyweight ladder under Joshua Van’s title picture (Van retained against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331 on Sept. 19; his next challenger is not booked). - Azamat Murzakanov vs. Dominick Reyes — light heavyweight depth while Carlos Ulberg remains out after April ACL surgery, with no return date and no interim booked.
None of those undercard bouts are championship fights on the event page.
Why this night matters now
With UFC 331 (Van retained against Pantoja) and UFC 332 (Natalia Silva won the vacant women’s flyweight title against Wang Cong) now done, Oct. 24 is the next stacked men’s title night on the books. Two champions. Two divisions. One arena in Abu Dhabi.
Volkanovski–Evloev asks whether an undefeated contender can finally take the featherweight throne. Yan–Merab 3 asks whether the champion’s first defense is a rubber-match statement or a trilogy twist. Everything else on the card is depth — useful, ranked, and not a substitute for the two belts.
Bottom line
UFC 333 is a double title night by booking, not by hype: Volkanovski defends against Evloev; Yan defends for the first time in a trilogy with Merab. Mark Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi. The rest of the fall title picture runs on parallel tracks: Gane–Hokit and Harrison–Nunes at UFC 334 on Nov. 14, with no challenger yet named for Silva at women’s flyweight or for Van at flyweight.