UFC 333 DFS: how to read the Volkanovski vs Evloev card on DraftKings

The bouts on the DraftKings slate

From the published sheet for UFC 333: Volkanovski vs Evloev: names and salaries. The full read is on the sheet.

• Alexander Volkanovski ($8,200) vs Movsar Evloev ($8,000)
• Merab Dvalishvili ($7,400) vs Petr Yan ($8,800)
• Lone'er Kavanagh ($7,900) vs Ramazan Temirov ($8,300)
• Alexander Volkov ($8,400) vs Rizvan Kuniev ($7,800)
• Aaron Pico ($8,300) vs Losene Keita ($7,900)
• Azamat Murzakanov ($9,000) vs Dominick Reyes ($7,200)
• Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev ($9,400) vs Nikita Krylov ($6,800)
• Abus Magomedov ($8,400) vs Cam Rowston ($7,800)
• Grant Dawson ($8,500) vs Nurullo Aliev ($7,700)
• Asaf Chopurov ($9,500) vs Colby Thicknesse ($6,700)
• Abubakar Vagaev ($8,900) vs Jacob Malkoun ($7,300)
• Bolaji Oki ($7,600) vs Daniel Santos ($8,600)
• Kody Steele ($8,700) vs Noah Gugnon ($7,500)
• Iasmin Lucindo ($9,200) vs Nicolle Caliari ($7,000)

Open the full sheet

What makes this card different

Most numbered cards have one five-round fight. UFC 333 has two, because both title fights are scheduled for five rounds. That changes the arithmetic of the slate. A fighter in a five-round fight has up to 25 minutes to collect strikes, takedowns and control time, compared with 15 minutes on the rest of the card, and DraftKings does not charge extra salary for the extra time.

The early start matters just as much. The event is at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, so the first fight on the DraftKings slate begins in the morning in the United States. Every lineup freezes at that first fight. If you usually finish your build on Saturday afternoon, that habit does not work here.

Two five-round fights: the extra time is free

DraftKings MMA Classic pays 0.2 per total strike landed, another 0.2 per significant strike, 0.03 per second of control, 5 per takedown or reversal and 10 per knockdown. A win adds 90 in round one, 70 in round two, 45 in round three, 40 in rounds four and five, or 30 by decision, and a first-round win inside 60 seconds adds 25 more.

A decision win in a five-round fight still earns only the 30-point win bonus, but the fighter has had two extra rounds of activity. That is why five-round fighters who win on volume or control often post scores that a three-round decision cannot reach. A late finish also pays: rounds four and five carry a 40-point bonus.

The flip side is that a five-round fight can still end in the first minute. The extra time raises the ceiling of a decision, but it does not remove the chance of an early finish in either direction. Read the sheet's round-one and decision columns side by side for both title fights before you decide how much of your salary to spend on them.

How to read the sheet for this card

Start with how each fight is likely to end, not who is likely to win. The sheet splits every fighter's win chance into knockout, submission and decision, and shows a separate round-one chance. On a card with two long fights, a fighter who wins mostly by decision can still be one of the top scorers, so the decision column deserves more weight than usual at the top of the card.

Then check the points if they win and the points if they lose. A favourite with a modest points-if-win figure can be a weaker play than a slightly smaller favourite whose wins tend to come early. Finally, look at the 100+ chance: it answers how often a fighter reaches a tournament-winning score, which is a different question from the projection.

• Read the decision column harder than usual for the two title fights.
• Compare points if they win across fighters at similar salaries.
• Use the 100+ chance for tournaments and the projection for cash games.
• Check the ownership forecast for the room you are entering, not a single card-wide number.

Plan around a 10:00 AM ET start

Weigh-ins and any late changes happen before the event, which leaves little time on Saturday morning. Build on Friday evening, then use Saturday only to check for withdrawals. DraftKings MMA does not allow lineup edits after the first fight starts, so a fighter who withdraws after that point stays in your lineup and scores zero.

If you play several contests, finish every lineup the night before and keep one short checklist for the morning: withdrawals, any replacement fighters added to the slate, and confirmation that every lineup is complete.

Salary at the top of the card

Title fights usually carry the highest salaries on a card, and UFC 333 has two of them. Four fighters near the top of the price list means you cannot roster all of them under a $50,000 cap without filling the rest of the lineup with the cheapest fighters on the card. Decide which title fight you believe in most, and let that choice shape the rest of the build.

Rostering both sides of the same title fight is a separate decision. In a five-round fight both fighters have extra time to score, so the loser can still post a respectable total. It caps the fight's upside, though, because only one of them can collect the win bonus. Most tournament players avoid it; some cash-game players accept it when both fighters project well.

Where the rest of the card fits

The two title fights get the attention, which is exactly why the rest of the card matters in tournaments. If most of the field builds around the same main-event and co-main favourites, the lineups that win often differ somewhere further down the card: a mid-priced fighter with a real round-one chance, or an underdog whose wins tend to come early.

The bouts block above lists every fight on the DraftKings slate once the sheet is published. For each one, read the same four things: win chance, how the win comes, points if they win, and the ownership forecast for the room you are entering. A fighter who scores well in an early finish and is lightly owned does more for a tournament lineup than a popular favourite who usually wins on points.

After the card: what to review

On Monday, compare what happened with what you expected. Did the five-round fights produce the totals the sheet suggested? Did the lineups that won differ from yours at the top of the card or further down? The Monday Review shows the winning lineup and how the sheet called it, and Your Tape keeps your own history so the comparison builds over many cards.

Common questions