Carlos Ulberg has admitted he has lost his UFC light heavyweight title belt amid celebrations following his victory over Jiri Prochazka at UFC 327.
From Victory to Vanishing Belt
“I’ve lost the belt, bro,” Ulberg conceded. He smiled during a Zoom call from his Miami hotel room. The Aucklander continued, “Ah, I don’t know exactly where it is”.
Ulberg, 35, walked through the celebrations that followed his title win. “Initially after winning, the plan was to not have a drink. But you know how these things go, right?” Ulberg said. “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 …’”. According to Ulberg, “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.” Ulberg added, “Then after that, it was back to one of the boys’ apartments and we all hung out there.”
Ulberg said, “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 …”.
Ulberg’s Injury and Celebrations Aftermath
Despite suggestions Ulberg has most likely suffered a ruptured ACL, and could be sidelined for up to a year, he says he has not even been medically checked. “Nah, first things first – go to the afterparty,” he grinned.
“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 …”.
“I’ve only really just come in and laid on the bed now,” the new champ continued, 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.”
The Fight Itself
Despite suffering a serious knee injury in the first round, which saw him fall to the mat several times, the New Zealander still earned the most incredible of finishes. He caught Prochazka with a check left hook late in the first round.
Immediately as his rival dropped to the canvas, ‘Black Jag’ then confirmed the win via vicious ground and pound.
Ulberg has been hobbling around. “So my knee isn’t really wanting to forgive me right now,” he said.
Ulberg said, “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 b