Alexander Volkanovski walks into Saturday’s featherweight title defense as the betting underdog, which is a strange thing to type about a two-time champion who has won his last two fights. He defends the belt against unbeaten Movsar Evloev in the UFC 333 main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, and the lines Yahoo Sports published Thursday have Evloev at -115 and Volkanovski at -105. That’s barely a lean. Still, the challenger is the one with the minus sign in front of the bigger number.
Volkanovski (28-4) is chasing his ninth featherweight title win. He beat Diego Lopes twice by unanimous decision, the second time in front of his home crowd in Australia this past January. The first of those wins made him the first fighter over 35 to win a UFC championship in a weight class below 170 pounds. In between, he played Joe in the new “Street Fighter” movie. Busy year.
Evloev is 20-0. His last outing was a majority decision over Lerone Murphy in March, close enough on the cards that one judge saw it even, and the zero survived. Twenty wins without a loss gets you to a title shot eventually. Now it has.
The Co-Main Is a Trilogy
Petr Yan defends the bantamweight belt against Merab Dvalishvili in a third fight between two of the best 135-pounders alive. Dvalishvili won the first meeting in March 2023. Yan took the second at the end of 2025 and the title with it, and Dvalishvili later said he went into that fight with a bad knee and a camp that went sideways, which he believes cost him. The books aren’t buying the excuse much. Yan is -155, Dvalishvili +130.
The Rest of the Card
The main card also has Lone’er Kavanagh (-108) against Ramazan Temirov (-112) at flyweight, about as coin-flip as lines get. Alexander Volkov (-120) meets Rizvan Kuniev (+100) at heavyweight, and Aaron Pico (-148) faces Losene Keita (+114) at featherweight.
On the prelims, Azamat Murzakanov (-218) takes on former title challenger Dominick Reyes (+180) at light heavyweight, and Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev is a massive -535 favorite over Nikita Krylov (+400) in the same division. Abus Magomedov (-130) and Cam Rowston (+100) meet at middleweight, with Grant Dawson (-118) against Nurullo Aliev (+102) at lightweight.
The early prelims open with the biggest favorite on the card, Asaf Chopurov at -575 over Colby Thicknesse (+425) at bantamweight. Abubakar Vagaev (-162) faces Jacob Malkoun (+136) at middleweight, Daniel Santos (-120) meets Bolaji Oki (+100) at featherweight, Kody Steele (-155) takes on Noah Gugnon (+130) at lightweight, and Iasmin Lucindo (-380) faces Nicolle Caliari (+300) at women’s strawweight.
Early prelims start at 10 a.m. ET Saturday, Oct. 24, with the main card at 2 p.m. ET, all streaming on Paramount+.
Volkanovski has also floated a ‘winner-take-all fight’ with Justin Gaethje, per a story Yahoo linked alongside its preview, so he clearly has plans past Saturday. Evloev should be the only thing on his mind. Here’s my take. A champion who just beat the same contender twice, getting priced like the challenger, tells you the market cares more about his age than his last 10 months. I’d take Volkanovski at plus-money-adjacent odds all day, and I’ll be watching Evloev’s first five-round test to see whether that perfect record holds up past the 15-minute mark.
