It’s been almost 24 hours since Carlos Ulberg won the UFC light heavyweight title on a busted right knee and the new champ still hasn’t been to hospital.
But what he has done?
“I’ve lost the belt, bro,” Ulberg concedes, smiling this particular Monday morning via a Zoom call from his Miami, Florida hotel room.
But as for how lost is lost?
“Ah, I don’t know exactly where it is,” the Aucklander continues.
“Initially after winning, the plan was to not have a drink. But you know how these things go, right?
“First, someone gives you a champagne to celebrate. Then one thing leads to another and you’re doing shots.
“So it’s ‘OK, I’ll have another, and another, and another …’
“We’ve got a big group of boys over here in Miami and, when the fight was done, we all went out to the afterparty at a nightclub.
“Then after that, it was back to one of the boys’ apartments and we all hung out there.
“I didn’t want to be carrying the belt around so I think it’s still there at the apartment somewhere. One of the boys probably has it in bed with him …”
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Kicking back now in his Miami hotel room, 35-year-old Ulberg is walking Fox Sports Australia through the incredible celebrations that have followed his shock title win over Jiri Prochazka at UFC 327.
Despite suffering a serious knee injury in the first round, which saw him fall to the mat several times, the gutsy New Zealander still went and earned the most incredible of finishes—catching Prochazka with a check left hook late in the first round.
Immediately as his rival dropped to the canvas, ‘Black Jag’ then went and confirmed the win via vicious ground and pound.
Despite suggestions Ulberg has most likely suffered a ruptured ACL, and could be sidelined for up to a year, the Aucklander says he has not even been medically checked, revealing: “I haven’t actually been to the hospital yet”.
You haven’t?
“Nah, first things first – go to the afterparty,” he grins. “We went out, hung out with all the boys. Got together.
“Then it was back to one of the other guys’ apartments because my room is fairly small …”
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Been to bed yet?
“I’ve only really just come in and laid on the bed now,” the new champ continues, still grinning. “I actually snuck out of the apartment a couple of hours ago, just to have some time on my own. Have a couple of hours to myself and really let this sink in.”
So as for how your knee is feeling?
“Well, I’ve been hobbling around everywhere,” he grins. “So my knee isn’t really wanting to forgive me right now.
“It’s all been a crazy, crazy whirlwind and I’m just going with it.
“It’s been a bit like when I was kickboxing, and broke my hand during King of the Ring.
“It was in the second fight on a night where I fought three times.
“Then after fighting, I’d actually booked a holiday that weekend so still went away.
“It was only after getting back that I went and saw a doctor who said ‘you need surgery’.
“I already knew and said ‘OK, let’s get it done’.
“And I think that’s what we’re facing now …”
Speaking immediately after the fight, Ulberg said his knee “blew out”. American sports doctor Brian Sutterer also suggested via his YouTube channel that Ulberg has almost certainly suffered an ACL tear requiring surgery and sidelining him for the rest of 2026.
“There is nothing else that is going to cause the tibia to shift forward internally like that and then pop backwards other than an ACL tear,” the MD said after reviewing the footage in slow motion.
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“This is almost certainly going to be a surgical injury. I’d be surprised if we see him fighting in nine to 12 months, which is really a shame when you’ve just acquired a new title.”
Asked just under 24 hours on for his own diagnosis, Ulberg shrugs: “My knee is really swollen so I’ll stay in the US for scans and then, if I need to go under the knife, I will.
“I think I’ll fly to Las Vegas in the next few days and see the doctors there.
“Then I can do physio at the UFC Performance Institute and get looked after by the guys there.
“That’s the plan.
“Get the knee sorted in Las Vegas and hang around for a few weeks
“Obviously I’m also keen to get back home to the family. I’m a family guy and I can’t wait to see them.”
And as for the finish?
“The way we did it, the way we got that finish, it couldn’t have happened any better,” Ulberg insists.
“I think that’s what needed to happen.
“For people to really respect what was happening, they needed to see that adversity.
“If I’d just got a finish and made it look easy, people might still be going ‘ah, dunno’ or saying this and that.
“But because we had to fight through adversity – and it was quite obvious – it really made getting the win, getting the title and becoming champion even sweeter.”
And as for knowing you needed the knockout once your knee buckled?
“There was a thought about that,” the champ concedes. “Thinking that if we do go to the corner after the first round, this fight will get called off.
“I also knew if we were going into the later rounds, it was only going to get so much worse.
“But really, my thinking was more about going ‘OK, adjust on the fly’, work out what I need to do.
“I knew I had to change the strategy and put some more sting on the shots.
“Obviously, over five rounds you don’t want to be doing that and exerting all your energy.
“But I knew that as I was throwing kicks and falling over, stepping back and falling, I had to throw some shots and get something that lands.
“I also knew that once something did land, I’d have to go for the kill.
“That’s what we needed to do and we did that.
“We found that kill shot.”
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