UFC 333 Fallout: Old Man Volk, the Flu Game, and the GOAT Argument
Event: UFC 333: Volkanovski vs. Evloev — October 24, 2026, Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi
Image credit: UFC.com
The memes are over. The fights happened. And somehow the internet has even more to argue about than it did before Saturday.
Alexander Volkanovski stopped Movsar Evloev in the second round in Abu Dhabi, kept his featherweight title, and then told everyone he did it while sick. Petr Yan settled his trilogy with Merab Dvalishvili. And the UFC's own celebration post turned into two arguments at once. Here is the night after the night before.
The finish everyone is replaying
It ended at 4:54 of round two. A straight left sent Evloev backwards, a big right hand sat him down, and Volkanovski hammered away at a covered-up challenger until referee Marc Goddard stepped in with six seconds left in the round. [1][2]
The numbers now read: Volkanovski 29-4, Evloev 20-1, the unbeaten run over at 20 fights. [1] The champion also passed Jose Aldo's record for featherweight title-fight wins, with nine, and tied Aldo's mark of seven successful defences. [3]
Then came the promise. Volkanovski said he had promised his wife a quick one — it was their wedding anniversary on Wednesday — so she would not be stressing on the sidelines. [2] He kept the promise with six seconds to spare.
The UFC's post-fight artwork for the champion pulled around 290,000 likes and 5,000 comments within hours. [4] Two camps formed underneath it. Camp one: "VOLK IS THE GOAT," full stop, not up for debate. Camp two: the stoppage came too early, with only seconds left in the round — answered, just as loudly, by fans saying Evloev was covered up and hurt and going nowhere. [4] That is the whole argument in miniature. The finish was emphatic enough to end the debate about the fight, and close enough to start a new one about the referee.
The flu game
Here is the part nobody knew during the fight. Volkanovski fought sick.
Training partner Craig Jones confirmed it after the fight, and Volkanovski confirmed it himself at the post-fight press conference: he had flu symptoms through fight week, and he refused to take medicine because he did not want an unfair advantage over Evloev. [5] His line, as reported by MMAmania from the press conference: "It would've been too easy if I wasn't sick." [5]
Fans had already noticed something was off — his voice sounded sick at Friday's weigh-ins, as MMAmania noted — but nothing else was said, and he pushed on. [5] So the "Old Man Volk" jokes from fight week now read differently. He was 38, sick, and still finished an unbeaten challenger in two rounds.
Yan settles the trilogy
The co-main did not need a finish to settle an argument. Yan beat Dvalishvili by unanimous decision, 48-47 on all three cards, to keep the bantamweight title and take the trilogy 2-1. [1][2]
It was fought at a frantic pace from the first bell, according to Reuters, with Yan withstanding a stream of takedown attempts and leaving Dvalishvili marked up by the end. [2] No controversy, no rematch clamour in the immediate aftermath — just a trilogy with a clear winner.
Where the numbers land
Volkanovski 29-4, nine featherweight title-fight wins, seven successful defences. Evloev 20-1, beaten for the first time. Yan, trilogy winner 2-1. [1][3]
The pre-fight version of this story — the blonde hair, the flat cap, the memes — is in our UFC 333 face-offs roundup, and the full fight-week buzz is in our UFC 333 fight-week roundup. The stat comparison that called this one is in our Volkanovski vs. Evloev head-to-head preview, and the complete card is on the UFC 333 event page.
Saturday settled the fights. The GOAT argument, as ever, is still running.
Sources
1. MMA Junkie — UFC 333 results: Alexander Volkanovski puts away Movsar Evloev inside two
2. Reuters — Volkanovski keeps promise with quick win over Evloev at UFC 333
3. theScore — Volkanovski TKOs Evloev in Round 2 to retain UFC featherweight title
4. UFC (@ufc) on Instagram — UFC 333 celebration artwork for Alexander Volkanovski (around 290,000 likes, 5,000 comments, posted Oct 24, 2026)
5. MMAmania — Flu Game! Volkanovski fought sick at UFC 333, refused to take meds
Fight data compiled from public statistical sources (ufcstats.com) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). OctagonStats is an independent database, not affiliated with UFC / TKO Group.