Alexander Volkanovski retained his featherweight title at UFC 333 after stopping Movsar Evloev in the closing seconds of the second round in Abu Dhabi.
The Australian landed a right hand before following up with ground-and-pound in the main event, bringing the scheduled five-round contest to an end with six seconds of the second round remaining.
The official time of the technical knockout was recorded as 4:54, prompting a jubilant response from the Etihad Arena crowd in the United Arab Emirates capital.
The defeat was the first of Evloev’s professional career, although the Russian paid tribute to his opponent after the contest.
“Like I said, Alex is a great champion and it was an honour to share the cage with him,” Evloev said.
Volkanovski, meanwhile, indicated that he intends to continue fighting while he feels able to do so.
“I’m choosing to do [fight], I don’t have to. I said if I didn’t take too much damage, we will probably keep going. So maybe we keep going,” he said.
