A big night of fights is set to go down in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The UFC 333 card is headlined by a pair of title fights, including undefeated Movsar Evloev challenging Alexander Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight championship in the main event. Evloev holds a perfect 20-0 professional record, but he'll face the biggest test of his career in Volkanovski, who is on his second run as 145-pound champion at age 38.
In the co-main event, Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili will clash in a rubber match for the bantamweight championship. Dvalishvili won their first meeting en route to winning the championship and a lengthy title run, but dropped the belt to Yan in their December rematch. red event and UFC Fight Night is included with your subscription! Plans start as low as $8.99/month or $89.99/year!
The rest of the main card has more evenly matched fights that could provide some answers for key divisions as the end of the year approaches. A pair of young and exciting flyweights meet in a featured bout when Lone'er Kavanagh takes on Ramazan Temirov. Plus, perennial heavyweight contender Alexander Volkov looks to put a final stamp on his contendership when he takes on Rizvan Kuniev in a key battle.
And former top prospect Aaron Pico looks to take the next step in his rise when he faces knockout artist Losene Keita at featherweight. With so much happening on Saturday night, let's look more closely at the full fight card with the latest odds before we get to our staff predictions and picks for the main card that you can consider before hitting the sportsbooks. Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook (Odds as of Oct. 22) With such a massive main event on tap, the crew at CBS Sports went ahead with predictions and picks for the main card from Brian Campbell, Brent Brookhouse, Shakiel Mahjouri, Michael Mormile and Brandon Wise.
Campbell: Volkanovski's longevity has been remarkable to see, especially after he bounced back from stoppage losses to Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria to regain the featherweight title. But it must be said that both of his victories since those damaging defeats came against the all-action but technically limited Diego Lopes, whom Evloev defeated by decision in 2023. For whatever Evloev lacks as a finisher inside the Octagon, he has size, an incredible motor and a physical grappling style that has the potential to wear down the 38-year-old Volkanovski in the championship rounds.
He also has a better fight IQ than what Lopes showed against Volkanovski over 10 rounds. Brookhouse: There are few fights where I will pick against Volkanovski until I've truly seen time catch up to him. Evloev has tremendous wrestling and a willingness to use that wrestling to grind out ugly wins, but Volkanovski has a well-rounded game that also features strong takedown defense.
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