UFC 333 took place in Abu Dhabi today with the championship fights bringing in the bulk of the bonuses.

The Fight of the Night went to Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili as the champion retained in a very spirited trilogy fight. Most believed that the fight was tied 2 rounds to 2 going into the deciding 5th round. And, that is when the champion turned it on and won the deciding round to retain the title. Both received $100K for the fight.

Alexander Volkanovski showed UFC fans why he is the goat at Featherweight. At 38, Volkanovski took over in the second round and hit Evloev with finishing blows to end the fight. Volkanovski earned the promotion’s $100K Performance Bonus.

Lo’oner Kavanagh earned the last $100K bonus as his speed took over and his punches obliterated Ramazan Temirov. It was an uppercut during an exchange that spelled the end for Temirov. From there, Kavanagh turned on the volume at stopped him with a series of punches.

The $25K bonuses went to Dominick Reyes, Aaron Pico, Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev, Abus Magomedov, and Kody Steele.

Without even a fight in the promotion, Shakur Stevenson is leaving Zuffa Boxing.

Via his YouTube channel, Stevenson announced that he is leaving the promotion. “I requested to be released from Zuffa Boxing,” Stevenson said on his YT video. Zuffa Boxing obliged.

Stevenson said that he is starting his own promotional company and indicated that he’s willing to work with other promoters. He indicated that he is willing to take fights at 135 and 140 and will move up to 147 at some point.

Stevenson leaving is a bad look for Zuffa Boxing. While we do not know what fights he wanted, its clear that he could not get them with Dana. If that is Dana’s issue or an issue with other promoters its something that we’ll find out in the days and weeks to come. With Stevenson leaving, its bad optics for Zuffa Boxing. Dana White proclaimed in a CNBC interview in July of the relative ease Zuffa Boxing had in the industry. But with rumors that the Conor Benn-Ryan Garcia fight did not do well financially and a top signing conspicuously leaving without even fighting under the promotional banner, it has to raise concerns.

UFC Fight Night 291 took place at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The announced event attendance was lower than the last time it was Edmonton.

The event drew a gate of $2.2 million with 16,903 in attendance. The last time the UFC visited Edmonton was in November 2024. The main event at that time was Brandon Moreno taking on Amir Albazi. Notably, last night’s co-main event of Jasmine Jasudavisius and Erin Blanchfield fought on that November 2024 Fight Night card.

Saturday’s Edmonton event is the second-lowest gate of UFC Fight Night’s for 2026. Only UFC Winnipeg (also headlined by Mike Malott) in April had a lower gate this year thus far.

UFC Fight Night took place on Saturday night in Edmonton with the promotion awarding 12 bonuses. The card had 12 finishes out of 13 fights on the night.

Arguably, Mike Malott had the best KO of the night with a knee that stopped Joaquin Buckley in his tracks. Malott earned $100K for his main event victory.

Marc-Andre Barriault stopped Kyle Daukaus in the first round with a flurry of elbows that ended the night for the American.

Mandel Nallo earned his $100K bonus by leg kicks. Nallo’s striking was on point against Nate Landwehr making him succumb to the leg kicks.

Joel Faglier earned his $100K bonus by having gas in the tank for the second round. Javad Mahjoub had a dominating first round but it was clear that he had punched himself out leaving nothing for round 2. Faglier was able to stopped Mahjoub in round 2.

The $25K bonuses went to Cristian Perez, Timmy Cuamba, Tanner Boser, Nick Galanti, Katlyn Cerminara, Steven Koslow, Chelsea Chandler and SuYoung Yu.

Jena Bishop stunned Liz Carmouche in the main event of PFL’s event in Chicago Friday night. As a result, the PFL lost out on a potential fight with Dakota Ditcheva.

Bishop won the vacant PFL Flyweight title in the fight Friday night. The title was vacated by Ditcheva due to injury. But, when Ditcheva is ready to return in 2027, she will face Bishop for the title.

The reason why a Bishop fight is not as appealing as Carmouche is Ditcheva knocked out Bishop in the first round of their first match in 2024. Carmouche had been on a four fight PFL win streak with her eyes set on Ditcheva.

A Ditcheva-Carmouche did not happen this year due to the former champ’s injuries and layoff. Still, the fight could have happened this past summer but Carmouche was matched with Viviane Araujo this past June and Ditcheva took on Denise Kielholtz. Although Ditcheva won, she broke both of her fights during the fight.

Certainly, you can question whether PFL sought to draw out their eventual showdown or if either fighter requested a tune-up prior to the showdown. Regardless, the promotion lost out on one of the bigger fights in could promote. PFL can definitely match them up again at some point, but hopefully that happens sooner than later.

The IBF has filed its Reply Brief in opposition to Jai Opetaia’s opposition to Motion to Dismiss. The IBF contends that Opetaia did not follow the rules afforded to him by the IBF.

Opetaia claims, according to the IBF, come down to its decision not to sanction his Zuffa bout last spring and the subsequent stripping of his title after he decided to fight. Opetaia fought Brandon Glanton and it was to be for his IBF cruiserweight title. However, the IBF decided not to sanction the fight. Opetaia does hold The Ring cruiserweight belt which Zuffa Boxing recognizes.

Opetaia sued in July claiming a breach of contract, bad faith, fraud among other claims. As with its Motion to Dismiss, the IBF argues in its Reply Brief that Opetaia did not follow the IBF rules of seeking an internal appeal prior to filing the lawsuit.

Despite the fact Opetaia claimed in his opposition brief that the need to “exhaust” all remedies prior to filing a lawsuit does not apply, the IBF cites case law where exhaustion is necessary in making a contractual claim. Moreover, Opetaia argues that he did not have to exhaust the remedies because the claims are based on the IBF’s decisions outside of the contract. But, the IBF argues that the claims are based on the IBF rules.

Notably, the IBF addresses the claim that a letter from Marc Ratner as the “designed representative” of Opetaia satisfied the appeal. However, the IBF denounces this allegation stating there’s no connection between Ratner and Opetaia or there was any notion that he was the boxer’s representative.

As with this allegation, the IBF claims that Opetaia brought up a new allegation in his opposition brief related to the Ali Act claim. Notably, he had to pay for the IBF supervisor/inspector’s travel and the “time-value interest on” the $73K Opetaia first paid for the IBF sanctioning fee prior to the IBF withdrawing its support. The IBF returned the money but Opetaia is claiming the damage.

The court has yet to notify the parties on whether there will be an oral argument in this matter. The IBF makes strong arguments in its case against Opetaia. Certainly, it is unfortunate that the IBF originally was going to sanction the fight but decided to withdraw its support. But, its clear that Opetaia should have appealed to the IBF prior to filing this lawsuit. While he may argue that the appeal would have been futile, the case law would suggest he had to do it.

The lawsuit highlights the issues that Zuffa Boxing will have with the rest of the boxing industry. We have seen with the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight that promoters and sanctioning bodies are going to have issue with Zuffa Boxing as it seeks a foothold in the support. While Dana White thought taking over boxing was going to be easy, its not. This lawsuit shows the apprehension sanctioning bodies have with working with Zuffa.

Dana White told reporter Shakiel Mahjouri that the UFC is set on going to Abu Dhabi next week despite the current unrest in the middle east.

https://t.co/9XFacWVZMN

— JustTheFights5 (@JustTheFights5) October 14, 2026

White stated that there are no contingencies and told Mahjouri that Power Slap will hold an event in Abu Dhabi and the WWE will be in Saudi Arabia (for its Crown Jewel event).

While the unrest continues in the middle east with the United States and Iran at odds, the region is currently in upheaval. This past weekend a series of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militants from Yemen targeted the Saudi Arabia airport killing 13 people and injuring more than 300.

Abu Dhabi is approximately 500 miles away from Riyadh yet the unrest is real and one would thank that postponing any event at this time would make sense. Recently, a tennis tournament set for Saudi Arabia, the Six Kings Slam, set for November has been postponed until December due to the unrest.

Also of note, a week after the UFC is in Abu Dhabi, Canelo Alvarez will fight in Riyadh. He recently affirmed his desire to fight on October 31st regardless of the issues.

Payout Perspective:

Money is the only reason these events continue. If you are participating in the events, its hard to say that you would not feel safe about voluntarily being in the region amid this chaos. Moreover, there is no way the promoters should put fans in harm’s way as security could be compromised. Hopefully nothing will happen during the events.

Last week the UFC announced a multi-year extension with Cleveland Clinic through 2030 according to a press releae. The agreement includes a $1 million contribution to fund professional athletes brain health study which will now include WWE and Zuffa Boxing athletes.

The UFC is giving a $1 million contribution to the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Per the press release, it “ensures that research will continue to help determine the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma and factors that put people at higher risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Payout Perspective:

I did not the name of PowerSlap athletes in this study although one would think that they would be a prime target for the study. Then again, maybe TKO does not want to have that data on hand. The belief is that the study can assist and help TKO will helping its contracted athletes train and prevent head trauma (at least in training). I would have like to seen some sort of fund for fighters that did not have the access to this information and help them with medical issues related to head injury. Alas, that probably could not happen because the amount of those affected would be vast.

The conflict in the middle east is spiraling out of control. Regardless, Turki Alalshikh confirmed on social media that the October 31st fight in Saudi Arabia between Canelo Alvarez and Christian Mbilli will go forward.

The concern in Saudi Arabia is real. A missile attack on the Saudi Arabia airport in Riyadh killed 13 people and injured more than 300.

Despite the attack, Turki Alalshikh posted on X that “Canelo reached out and told me he’ll still fight in Riyadh this October, no matter what happens.”

Canelo reached out and told me he’ll still fight in Riyadh this October, no matter what happens. He fears nothing. My country is home to the two Holy Mosques, land of peace, safety, rich civilization, deep history, and kind-hearted people. Thank you to everyone who checked in and showed support. Hard times reveal true friends.

— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) October 11, 2026

The event, which is being promoted as “Mexico vs The World” is scheduled as one of the opening events to the Riyadh Season 2026, an annual collection of entertainment, culture and sporting events organized by the Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority.

Payout Perspective:

The fight at the end of the month will be the first event in the country since the United States decided to attack Iran in February of this year. Notably, TKO has scheduled WWE for its semi-annual Crown Jewel event on November 7th. Although not much has been made public, one has to speculate if that event will take place. Also, the biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania, heading to Saudi Arabia this spring. However a location and date of the event have not been announced causing speculation it may move the event.

In my opinion, it all comes down to money and how much people are willing to risk for it. Its clear the region is unstable at this point and the athletes (and fans) are at an unnecessary risk at this point. I am not saying that they should never do events in Saudi Arabia, but this does not seem like a safe time.

UFC Vegas 122 took place on Saturday night at The Apex in Las Vegas. Eight fighters received bonuses.

Headliner Brendan Allen earned one of the four $100K Performance bonus with his 5th round submission of Christian Leroy.

Andre Fili earned a $100K bonus for his head kick KO of Kai Kamaka III. Fili pulled away from following up his kick with a right hand as he knew Kamaka was out.

Otari Tanzilovi earned his $100K bonus by stopping Marcus Wellmaker with a head kick which stopped Wellmaker.

Alice Pereira earned a $100K bonus after she put a huge gash in Darya Zhelezniakova’s forehead. The doctor came in after the first round and Zhelezniakova declined to continue.

The $25K finish bonuses went to Allen Frye, Jr., Brendson Ribeiro, Niko Price, Francisco Prado and Julius Walker.