Grant Dawson got knocked down in the first round of his UFC 333 prelim in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and still left with Nurullo Aliev’s unbeaten record. All three judges scored it 29-27 for the American lightweight, and the fight went the full 15 minutes, ending at 5:00 of Round 3. Aliev came in 12-0. He leaves 12-1.
The opening minutes belonged to Aliev. Per Cageside Press, the Tajik fighter pushed Dawson to the fence, landed a combination that forced a desperation shot, stuffed it, and ended up on top. When Dawson got back up, a left straight put him on the canvas. Aliev followed with a punch to the back of the head, and referee Marc Goddard took a point on the spot. Aaron Bronsteter wrote on X that Goddard was laying down the law on back-of-the-head strikes. Jed Meshew was blunter: “I love that we’ve finally shamed referees enough for them to do their jobs.”
That deduction changed the arithmetic, and Dawson changed the fight. He started landing on the feet, took Aliev down late in the round and closed the frame with a tight guillotine. In Round 2 Aliev was still walking forward, but he looked heavier doing it. Dawson worked the jab and leg kicks, dragged him down into full guard and stayed busy with elbows and short punches. Aliev got up with about a minute left, shot a failed takedown of his own and spent the rest of the round backing up.
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Aliev needed a finish in Round 3 and fought like it. Dawson stopped the rush with an elbow up the middle, scrambled to top position, landed a spinning kick to the body when they returned to their feet, then hit his fifth takedown of the night. He moved to full mount and stayed there until the horn.
“I was hoping to get him out of there but man, he’s so good,” Dawson said afterward, according to UFC News on X. He said he has a daughter on the way and dedicated the win to his family and his faith. Bronsteter called it a great win after first-round adversity and wrote that it should be 29-27 at minimum.
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Dawson entered 4-1 in his last five, and Cageside Press projects a rankings bump that puts him in line for a top-level lightweight fight next. Nothing has been announced.
My take: the scorecards tell you the judges likely gave Aliev Round 1 on the knockdown and then the deduction leveled it, which is exactly how it should work. No one got cute with a 10-8 for a single knockdown Dawson recovered from and finished the round on top of with a guillotine. The adjustment is what I’ll remember. Dawson lost the striking exchange early, stopped trying to win it and fought the version of the fight Aliev hadn’t seen in 12 pro bouts. Five takedowns against a man who’d never lost is the whole story. Aliev’s gas tank faded hard after the first five minutes, and the guy who wanted to grapple was the one who still had legs in Round 3.
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