Movsar Evloev Is 20-0 With Zero UFC Finishes and Gets Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 333: What a Win Would Mean
Movsar Evloev has won 20 professional fights and has never finished anybody in the UFC. Ten fights in the promotion, ten trips to the scorecards, and on Saturday he gets Alexander Volkanovski and the featherweight title in Abu Dhabi.
If he wins, he becomes the first male fighter in UFC history to take a belt without a single finish on his UFC record. The sportsbooks are not treating that as a disqualifier. Volkanovski and Evloev opened at -110 apiece, which is as close to a coin flip as a book will print.
The Card
UFC 333 runs Saturday at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, and it is sold out. The main card starts at 2 p.m. ET, early because the event is in the United Arab Emirates, and it streams on Paramount+ at no extra charge. There is no pay-per-view fee.
Two belts are up. Volkanovski defends featherweight against Evloev, and Petr Yan defends bantamweight against Merab Dvalishvili in the third fight of their series.
Volkanovski Is 38 and Still Here
Ilia Topuria knocked him out in the second round at UFC 298 in February 2024 and took the belt. Topuria then vacated it to move up to lightweight, and Volkanovski beat Diego Lopes by unanimous decision at UFC 314 in April 2025 to get it back. He beat Lopes again in the Sydney rematch at UFC 325 in January, 49-46 on two cards and 50-45 on the third.
He is 28-4 and chasing his seventh title defense across two reigns. He and Jose Aldo are tied with eight wins in UFC featherweight title fights, and Volkanovski beat Aldo to collect his first one.
Evloev Waited Seven Years and Barely Fought
He debuted in the UFC in April 2019 and this is his first title shot. He is 32, 20-0, 10-0 in the promotion, and ranked first at featherweight. The schedule explains the wait: one fight in 2022, one in 2023, two in 2024, and none at all in 2025. A booking against Aaron Pico fell apart, the reschedule fell apart, and he withdrew injured less than two weeks out.
He finally got back in there on March 21 in London and beat Lerone Murphy by majority decision in a title eliminator, handing Murphy his first professional loss. Referee Marc Goddard docked Evloev a point in the fourth round for a groin kick and he won anyway.
Evloev called Volkanovski out in the cage that night and Volkanovski accepted on the spot. This week Evloev’s pitch was blunt. “He hasn’t beaten anyone like me.”
Yan and Dvalishvili Are Tied at One Apiece
Dvalishvili won the first by unanimous decision in March 2023. Yan won the second by unanimous decision at UFC 323 last December and took the title off him, ending a 14-fight win streak.
Yan is 33 and 20-5, and this is the first defense of his second reign. Dvalishvili is 35 and 21-5, and he held the belt for 15 months with wins over Umar Nurmagomedov, Sean O’Malley and Cory Sandhagen before Yan took it. Yan is the favorite at -175.
The Pick
Evloev’s case is that he is undefeated and nearly impossible to put away. That is also his problem. Volkanovski has won title fights on the cards against better strikers than Evloev, and a fighter whose entire game is accumulating rounds now has to out-point the best round-accumulator the division has ever produced.
Take the champion, and settle in for all 25 minutes of it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
