Colby Thicknesse beat Asaf Chopurov by split decision to close the early prelims at UFC 333 on Saturday at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Two judges scored it 29-28 for Thicknesse and the third had it 29-28 for Chopurov. That ended the unbeaten run of the biggest favorite on the entire 14-fight card.
The matchup had a fun side plot. Thicknesse trains with Alexander Volkanovski, and Chopurov is a sparring partner of Petr Yan. Both champions were set to defend their belts in the top two fights later that night, so their training partners got to go first, and the underdog side won.
Chopurov came in at 11-0 for a promotional debut that people had been looking forward to, according to Bloody Elbow. Thicknesse closed at +425. At that price the market gave him roughly a 19% chance, and a $100 ticket paid $425 in profit. Long shots usually don’t come with that much backing from the scorecards. This one only barely did.
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How the Cards Fell
Aaron Bronsteter pointed out the strange part on X. Across the three cards, Chopurov won two of the three rounds and still lost on the math, because a Round 1 card for Thicknesse decided it. Bronsteter’s first reaction was “You’ve got to be kidding me…” which is how plenty of Chopurov backers probably felt about their bet slips.
Daniel Cormier, calling the fight on the broadcast, didn’t think Thicknesse had done enough over 15 minutes to pull the upset, Bloody Elbow reported. Chopurov looked confused when the result was read. Fans on social media went straight to robbery claims, with one writing, “Bro was robbed.” Another said, “I’ve had the opposite of every decision so far, lmao,” which tells you how the judging went all afternoon.
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Thicknesse didn’t seem worried about any of it. Speaking after the fight, in comments posted by UFC News, he said, “I had a ton of fun out there and probably the most fun in a fight I’ve ever had.”
The win is his third in a row. Chopurov takes the first loss of his career in his first UFC appearance. Neither man had a next fight announced in the source reports.
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Sal’s Take
I love a live dog, and Thicknesse at +425 was live because nobody had seen Chopurov handle UFC-level pressure for three rounds. A perfect record built outside the promotion gets priced like a sure thing, and this fight showed why that’s risky. Still, I won’t pretend the cards were clean. When the fighter who won more rounds across the cards loses because of how one opening frame was scored, that’s a judging problem and the market didn’t fail. The useful lesson is about the price. Chopurov was the shortest favorite on a 14-fight card in his UFC debut, and that’s a bad bet before anyone throws a punch. Thicknesse gets the W, the three-fight streak and a nice payout for anyone holding his ticket. Chopurov gets a scorecard to stare at on the flight home, plus a gym full of Yan’s training partners telling him he won Round 1.
