Dawson beats Aliev on UFC 333 prelims in Abu Dhabi

Grant Dawson won a unanimous decision over Nurullo Aliev in a lightweight bout on the preliminary card of UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, with the main card and two title fights still to come.

All three judges scored the fight 29-27 for Dawson, according to the event results compiled on Wikipedia and Yahoo Sports’ live coverage. Aliev was deducted a point in the first round for illegal strikes to the back of the head, the Wikipedia event page said.

UFC 333 is being held at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The card is headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev, and a bantamweight title fight between champion Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili. Yahoo Sports described the night as a title double-header. Neither fight had a result when its live page was last updated, and this story will be updated when official results are confirmed.

Dawson’s win was one of several decisions on the early part of the card. In other preliminary bouts, Abusupiyan Magomedov submitted Cameron Rowston with a guillotine choke at 1:44 of the first round in a middleweight fight, according to the same results.

On the early preliminary card, Colby Thicknesse beat Asaf Chopurov by split decision in a bantamweight bout, with scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28. Abubakar Vagaev beat Jacob Malkoun by decision in a middleweight fight, and Daniel Santos beat Bolaji Oki by unanimous decision at featherweight. Yahoo Sports’ live feed called the Vagaev result unanimous, while Wikipedia listed 29-28 on all three cards.

Kody Steele stopped Noah Gugnon with punches at 3:54 of the first round in a lightweight fight. In a 120.5-pound catchweight bout, Iasmin Lucindo won a unanimous decision over Nicolle Caliari, with all three judges scoring it 30-27. Wikipedia reported that Caliari missed weight by four and a half pounds and was fined 30 per cent of her purse, which went to Lucindo.

Two other light heavyweight bouts on the preliminary card, Azamat Murzakanov against Dominick Reyes and Nikita Krylov against Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev, had not been posted as final when the live page was last updated. Krylov and Yakhyaev were listed as the next fight.

The main card also includes a flyweight bout between Lone’er Kavanagh and Ramazan Temirov, a heavyweight fight between Alexander Volkov and Rizvan Kuniev, and a featherweight bout between Aaron Pico and Losene Keita.

UFC fans in Canada have more to look forward to. The promotion has announced UFC 336 for Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 30, and Canadians Jasmine Jasudavicius and Mike Malott won in Edmonton last weekend.

Results for the preliminary card are drawn from Wikipedia’s UFC 333 event page and Yahoo Sports’ live results page, both of which marked the event as in progress. Scorecards can differ between outlets and may change after official confirmation.

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