Dominick Reyes knocks out Azamat Murzakanov with a head kick at UFC 333

Dominick Reyes stopped Azamat Murzakanov with a head kick 2 minutes, 40 seconds into the first round of their light heavyweight bout on the UFC 333 preliminary card in Abu Dhabi, according to the official UFC 333 results. The win pitted the division's No. 8-ranked Reyes against No. 7-ranked Murzakanov, per the same results page, and ended with Reyes landing the finishing kick before UFC 333's headline bouts began, Yahoo Sports reported.

A familiar way to lose

The finish repeated how Murzakanov suffered his only other professional loss. Paulo Costa stopped him with a head kick in the third round at UFC 327 in April, ending what had been a 16-0 start to his career, according to Murzakanov's Wikipedia career record. Both of his two career defeats have now come the same way, dropping his overall record to 16-2.

Reyes building back after two title losses

For Reyes, the win is his second in a row and continues a slow climb back toward the division's top tier. He twice challenged for the UFC light heavyweight title in 2020, losing a close decision to Jon Jones at UFC 247 that a majority of media scorecards favored him to win, then losing by TKO to Jan Blachowicz for the vacant belt later that year, according to his Wikipedia fight record. He won three straight fights from mid-2024 into early 2025 before a first-round knockout loss to Carlos Ulberg in September 2025, then edged Johnny Walker by split decision this past April. The win over Murzakanov is his second finish of the current stretch and his most significant result since the Ulberg loss, coming against a fighter who was unbeaten in his first seven UFC appearances.

Neither UFC.com nor Yahoo Sports' recap detailed what set up the finishing kick, and no updated divisional rankings had been published as of this report.