Yan beats Dvalishvili; Volkanovski stops Evloev at UFC 333

Petr Yan retained the UFC bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Merab Dvalishvili in the co-main event of UFC 333 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, and Alexander Volkanovski kept the featherweight belt with a second-round stoppage of Movsar Evloev.

All three judges scored the five-round trilogy fight 48-47 for Yan at Etihad Arena. Dvalishvili won the opening two rounds, pressing forward with big right hands and takedown attempts, according to CBS Sports. Yan landed hard shots in the second round but was often pressured.

The fight turned in the third round, when a hard left body kick staggered Dvalishvili and Yan began landing repeated combinations. CBS Sports reported that Yan controlled the fourth and fifth rounds with body and head strikes and held off increasingly desperate takedown attempts. The result gave Yan a 2-1 lead in their series, according to Heavy.

“I was listening to my coach,” Yan said through an interpreter. He said his corner told him before the last round that the fight was tied at two rounds apiece and that whoever won the fifth would win the fight.

In the main event, Volkanovski stopped Evloev with punches at 4:54 of the second round, according to the event results on Wikipedia and live coverage from MMA Mania and Yahoo Sports. Volkanovski, who is 28-4, made the second defence of his title in his second reign as champion.

The card produced several other finishes. Aaron Pico knocked out Losene Keita 1:14 into the first round and called out ranked featherweights afterward, CBS Sports reported. Dominick Reyes beat Azamat Murzakanov by technical knockout in the first round with a head kick and punches. Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev stopped former title challenger Nikita Krylov with knees and punches in the first round, and Lone’er Kavanagh knocked out Ramazan Temirov.

Alexander Volkov won a unanimous decision over Rizvan Kuniev in a heavyweight bout. Earlier in the night, Grant Dawson beat Nurullo Aliev by unanimous decision, a result reported on our prelims story. Aliev had a point deducted in the first round for illegal strikes to the back of the head.

UFC was among the most searched terms in Canada on Saturday, with more than 50,000 searches in the past 24 hours, according to Google Trends. The event was held in the United Arab Emirates and aired in the early afternoon in Canada.

The results are based on live coverage published on the night of the event. Final official scorecards and statistics are published by the UFC.

For more weekend sports results, see our report on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers clinching a CFL playoff spot and Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Everton.

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Sources: CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, MMA Mania, Heavy, Wikipedia and Google Trends.