UFC 333: Where to watch in the UK, fight card and odds

Ryan Murray

Alexander Volkanovski and Petr Yan put their respective titles on the line this weekend, as the UFC visits Abu Dhabi for the third time in the space of a year.

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Those attending the Etihad Arena will be hoping for a similar show to what we saw at last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night: Buckley vs Malott, which produced a series of thrilling duels.

A combined total of 12 finishes were recorded at Edmonton’s Rogers Place, the joint-most to occur at a single event in UFC history.

Although 10 of the 13 matches were determined by either a TKO or submission manoeuvre, the main event concluded when Mike Malott knocked out Joaquin Buckley with a lethal combination of knees and punches.

There are only five bouts slated on UFC 333’s main card, but two of these could result in belts exchanging hands. Alexander Volkanovski hopes to defend his hard-earned featherweight crown against Movsar Evloev, who has been patiently waiting for his own shot at glory.

Meanwhile, reigning bantamweight champion Petr Yan and former titleholder Merab Dvalishvili prepare to contest the third and final instalment of an absorbing trilogy, which is currently tied at one victory apiece.

Having hosted the UFC on 23 previous occasions, the Emirati capital is ready to once again welcome a handful of the best mixed martial artists in the world.

The last event was staged here as recently as July, when former light-heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev eventually overcame Bogdan ‘Czarevitch’ Guskov during the latter stages of a gruelling encounter.

Exclusive live coverage of UFC 333: Volkanovski vs. Evloev will be provided by TNT Sports, the home of UFC in the United Kingdom.

UFC 333 – Key information

Date: Saturday 24th October

Start time (all times in BST): Early Preliminaries: 14:00, Preliminaries: 16:00, and Main Card: 18:00

Venue: Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

Referee: TBC

TV Channels: TNT Sports (Main Card), UFC Fight Pass (Preliminaries and Early Preliminaries)

Main Event odds: Alexander Volkanovski: 10/11 (bet365) vs. Movsar Evloev: 10/11 (bet365)

Odds provided by bet365

Schedule

Thanks to a three-hour time difference, UK-based fans will need to settle in a little earlier than usual for this latest instalment of UFC action. The early preliminaries are set to begin at 14:00, with four preliminary fights following a couple of hours later.

Attention then turns to the main card, which will start at 18:00 and conclude with the headline bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev.

Although it won’t directly impact scheduling for this event, it’s worth noting that daylight saving time ends in the United Kingdom at 2am on Sunday. Therefore, the clocks will go backwards by one hour – shifting from BST to GMT – in the immediate aftermath of UFC 333.

Here’s confirmation of all of Saturday’s bouts:

Main Card

Alexander Volkanovski (champion) vs Movsar Evloev (for featherweight title)

Petr Yan (champion) vs Merab Dvalishvili (for bantamweight title)

Lone'er Kavanagh vs Ramazan Temirov (flyweight)

Alexander Volkov vs Rizvan Kuniev (heavyweight)

Aaron Pico vs Losene Keita (featherweight)

Preliminaries

Azamat Murzakanov vs Dominick Reyes (light-heavyweight)

Nikita Krylov vs Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev (light-heavyweight)

Abusupiyan Magomedov vs Cameron Rowston (middleweight)

Grant Dawson vs Nurullo Aliev (lightweight)

Early Preliminaries

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 Nicole Caliari (women’s strawweight)

Main Event(s) Preview

We look ahead at the two bouts that could potentially produce a new champion:

Alexander Volkanovski vs Movsar Evloev (for featherweight title)

Having won a joint-record eight featherweight championship matches, Alexander Volkanovski won’t be phased by the magnitude of Saturday night’s contest.

The aggressive Australian first claimed the belt way back in December 2019, when he defeated Max Holloway at UFC 245. Four successful defences followed over the next two-and-a-half years, earning Volkanovski the rare opportunity of becoming a simultaneous champion across two weight classifications.

A gut-wrenching loss to Islam Makhachev on home soil not only prevented him from joining an esteemed club of ‘champ-champs’, but it also triggered a run of three defeats in four outings. Volkanovski unified and subsequently lost the featherweight title in this challenging spell, with another failed attempt at stealing Makhachev’s crown sandwiched in between.

With his 1,526-day reign as champion falling short of José Aldo’s long-standing record by roughly one year, Volkanovski would have been forgiven for taking a step back from the limelight. However, feeling the impact of Ilia Topuria’s knockout punch only strengthened his resolve, enabling him to reassert his dominance when the Georgian vacated the belt in April 2025.

After recapturing the title by beating Diego Lopes at UFC 314, Volkanovski survived the Brazilian’s wrath when the pair met in his native New South Wales earlier this year. The fight would once again go the distance, while a second consecutive judging panel delivered the same unanimous verdict.

In stark contrast to his opponent, Movsar Evloev has never been involved in a championship clash despite boasting an impressive ten-match unbeaten run.

The Russian enjoyed a positive UFC debut, getting the better of Seung Woo Choi in five rounds at St. Petersburg’s Yubileyny Sports Palace. Following that landmark success in his native homeland, Evloev won each of his next eight bouts, including an outstanding ‘Fight of the Night’ triumph over the aforementioned Diego Lopes at UFC 288: Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo.

Evloev’s latest appearance in the Octagon came in March of this year, when he headlined UFC’s return to England alongside Manchester-born scrapper Lerone Murphy. Having remarkably won eight of his previous nine bouts by unanimous decision and the other on a split card, the 32-year-old star relied on the judges’ approval for a tenth occasion to preserve his 100% record and, perhaps more importantly, become the number one contender for the featherweight crown.

Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili (for bantamweight title)

There was little to separate Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili in either of their first two meetings, so many expect this one to be a tight and cagey affair.

Dvalishvili emerged victorious when the pair initially went toe-to-toe back in March 2023, edging his opponent via unanimous decision in Las Vegas. However, the diminutive Georgian would be on the receiving end of the same outcome at UFC 323, as Yan dispossessed him of his title on their return to Sin City.

In between those contrasting results against Dvalishvili, Yan defended his newly acquired belt in close battles with Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo, and Marcus McGhee. This isn’t the first time the Russian has ruled the roost in the bantamweight division, having held the belt twice now in addition to serving as interim champion during Aljamain Sterling’s recovery from surgery.

After losing each of his opening two contests following a mid-year transfer from the Ring of Combat promotion, Merab Dvalishvili slowly began to establish himself as one of the UFC’s best pound-for-pound fighters.

The ‘Machine’ bounced back from those early setbacks to record 14 wins on the bounce, before succumbing to Saturday night’s opponent at last December’s UFC 323.

Nobody has defended the bantamweight title on as many consecutive occasions as Merab Dvalishvili, who blocked the challenge of Umar Nurmagomedov, Cory Sandhagen, and a vengeful Sean O'Malley, the man he defeated to commence his first and only reign as champion.

Where to watch on TV or live stream?

UFC 333 is only available to viewers who have purchased a TNT Sports subscription, which may come as standard within a Sky or Virgin Media package. The event will be televised on TNT Sports 2, with the build-up commencing at 17:00 (BST) ahead of the opening main card bout.

Viewers can also follow events in Abu Dhabi by logging into HBO Max, a streaming platform that can be accessed by any TNT Sports customer.

While all five main card bouts are being shown on TNT Sports/HBO Max, the early preliminaries and preliminaries are ringfenced for the UFC Fight Pass app.

The UFC Fight Pass is a subscription-based service that enables fans to watch the first few hours of every major event, while also providing access to a range of other features. This includes original UFC shows & series, match highlights and analysis, and a comprehensive archive of memorable MMA moments.

When creating a UFC Fight Pass account, customers can pay £7.99 per month within a rolling contract or a one-off annual fee of £46.79. Therefore, the yearly option works out to be more than 50% cheaper when compared over 12 months.