Carlos Ulberg won the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 327 after knocking out Jiri Prochazka with a check left hook late in the first round, but the victory came with a serious right-knee injury that left him struggling through the fight and, by Monday morning, still had not taken him to hospital.
Ulberg, speaking roughly 24 hours after the win, said he had fallen to the mat several times in the first round before landing the punch that ended the bout, then finishing Prochazka with vicious ground and pound to seal the belt. He said he had only just come in and laid on the bed when he spoke from a Miami hotel room, adding that he had snuck out of the apartment a couple of hours earlier to get time on his own.
The weight of the result was obvious in the way Ulberg talked about the belt. He said, “I’ve lost the belt, bro,” before adding, “Ah, I don’t know exactly where it is,” a reflection of how the night unfolded after the cage door opened and the celebrations began. What should have been a straight trip from the arena to medical evaluation instead turned into champagne, shots, an afterparty at a nightclub and then a return to one of the boys’ apartments.
Ulberg said he had planned not to drink after winning, but that plan did not survive the night. “Initially after winning, the plan was to not have a drink. But you know how these things go, right?” he said. “First, someone gives you a champagne to celebrate. Then one thing leads to another and you’re doing shots.”
He said the group stayed out late in Miami, moving from the nightclub to the apartment, where the belt may still be sitting with one of his friends. “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 …” he said.
That detail leaves the night caught between triumph and uncertainty. The source says there have been suggestions Ulberg most likely suffered a ruptured ACL, an injury that could sideline him for up to a year, but he said on Monday morning, “I haven’t actually been to the hospital yet,” and later added, “Nah, first things first – go to the afterparty.”
For now, the title stands as the clean outcome of a fight that was anything but clean. Ulberg won the belt despite the knee damage, but the real next chapter is no longer the celebration in Miami. It is the medical evaluation he has not yet had, and whether that right knee turns a championship night into a long layoff.