ABU DHABI — Championship honours remain intact at UFC 333 after all four title fighters made weight for Saturday’s card in Abu Dhabi, though the weigh-ins were marred by a significant miss on the preliminary card as Nicolle Caliari came in 4.5lb over the strawweight limit.
Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski tipped the scale at 144.5lb for his main event defence against undefeated challenger Movsar Evloev, who hit 145lb on the championship limit. In the co-main event trilogy bout, bantamweight champion Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili both registered at 135lb, confirming Yan’s title will be at stake.
The sole miss came from preliminary strawweight Nicolle Caliari, who officially weighed 120.5lb — 4.5lb over the 115lb limit even with the one-pound allowance for a non-title bout. Her clash with Iasmin Lucindo, who made 115lb, will proceed at a catchweight with Caliari forfeiting 30 per cent of her purse as penalty. The remaining 27 fighters who stepped to the scale on Friday morning local time all made weight without issue.
Beyond the two title fights, the main card features Lone’er Kavanagh (125.5lb) against Ramazan Temirov (126lb), Alexander Volkov (256lb) versus Rizvan Kuniev (265lb) and Aaron Pico (145.5lb) against Losene Keita (146lb). The preliminary card on Paramount+ sees Azamat Murzakanov (206lb) face Dominick Reyes (205lb), Nikita Krylov (206lb) meet Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev (206lb), Abus Magomedov (185.5lb) take on Cam Rowston (185lb) and Grant Dawson (156lb) meet Nurullo Aliev (155lb).
The early prelims, also on Paramount+, are set with Colby Thicknesse (135.5lb) versus Asaf Chopurov (136lb), Abubakar Vagaev (185.5lb) against Jacob Malkoun (186lb), Bolaji Oki (146lb) versus Daniel Santos (146lb) and Kody Steele (156lb) against Noah Gugnon (156lb). The featherweight meeting between Pico and Keita follows Aaron Pico embracing a new mindset ahead of his UFC 333 clash with Keita as the 14-fight slate is now official for Saturday night.