Carlos Ulberg has made quite a statement that he should be in the next line for his title shot, following the highlighted victory in the main event of UFC Perth.
Ulberg, who faced Dominic Reyes in the battle for knockout artists, was on the gas pedal early, but still had some caution during the early exchanges, but he was waiting for the perfect opening to unleash his best punch. He let Reyes interact with him, and Ulberg unleashed his completely timing left hand, then a devastating right hook washed away.
Reyes fell flat on the canvas as judge Mark Goddard hurriedly stopped the fight and ended at 4:27 in the opening round.
With nine wins in the light heavyweight division, Ulberg clearly believes he should score a shot in gold.
“That’s exactly what we wanted,” Ulberg said of his knockout victory. “I just talked to Hunter (Campbell) and we’re talking about something, we’re going to fly to Vegas and we’re going there so we can witness their fight.
“That’s exactly how I imagined the whole thing. I put props out Dom and his entire team to come out. Don’t sleep on the guy, I always support my brother.”
It was a great finish for Ulberg. Ulberg halted Reyes’ recent momentum following his own three straight knockout victory when his career seemed to be on life support. Instead, Reyes returned to title competition again, but his winning streak ended on Saturday.
Standing in the opposite stance, Ulberg was operating on his front paw, pushing Reyes back and looking for an opening to throw his best punch. Reyes was tentative and cautious to avoid over-expanding himself as he was constantly circling to avoid power shots coming back to him.
Ulberg was stunning with his footwork to cut the cage, always putting himself in order to throw his best punches, and Reyes was stuck in response to him.
As he finally stepped into his pocket for a replacement, Ulberg threw a 1-2 combination with his right hand from Reyes’ chin, then threw it with his right hand to crash into the mountain canvas. This was a dramatic knockout that Ulberg set up and brought the perfect image finish to the local rabies fanbase behind the New Zealand fighter jet.
Ulberg, a man of a few words, usually had a very simple message to Ankalaev and Pereira as they prepared to fight for the title in Las Vegas the following Saturday.
“I’m off now!” cried Ulberg.
As for Reyes, his inspiring comeback story hit Perth’s roadblock after suffering a loss of knockout. He is now 3-5 in his last eight fights that date back to the loss of a controversial decision to John Jones when he met in 2020.