Goddard deducts second UFC point in weeks as Aliev pays for illegal strikes at UFC 333

Referee Marc Goddard deducted a point from Nurullo Aliev for illegal back-of-head strikes during a lightweight preliminary bout against Grant Dawson at UFC 333 on Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Dawson recovered from an early knockdown to win by unanimous decision, inflicting the first professional loss of Aliev’s career.

After Aliev dropped Dawson in the first round, he followed up with several shots to the back of his opponent’s head. Goddard halted the action and removed a point, stating he had already issued warnings before taking the punitive step. Dawson responded with relentless pressure and sustained ground work to turn the fight around and claim the decision.

The deduction is the second Goddard has issued in quick succession. On 10 October at UFC Vegas 122, he penalised Christian Leroy Duncan for an eye poke against Brendan Allen, explaining afterwards that he had cautioned Duncan about his outstretched fingers before acting in the second round. Allen went on to submit Duncan with a rear-naked choke in the fifth.

The back-to-back point deductions have drawn attention to Goddard’s willingness to enforce the rules after warnings, a stance that has been noted by fighters and observers across the sport. Both incidents followed the same pattern: a verbal caution, a repeated foul, and an immediate penalty — leaving little ambiguity about the referee’s threshold.

For Aliev, the loss carries particular weight as the first blemish on his professional record, arriving in circumstances shaped as much by the scorecards as by the point deduction. Dawson’s ability to absorb the early knockdown and grind out the unanimous verdict underlines the swing in momentum that followed Goddard’s intervention.