{"id":827324,"date":"2026-07-27T17:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:04:10","slug":"carlos-ulberg-lays-out-how-he-would-book-ufc-light-heavyweight-title-contender-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827324\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Ulberg lays out how he would book UFC light heavyweight title contender picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Ulberg was in the house to watch Magomed Ankalaev take care of business<\/a> in the UFC Abu Dhabi main event and he has some thoughts on how the light heavyweight roster should be booked going forward.<\/p>\n

The reigning 205-pound champion has been sidelined since April, when he won a vacant UFC title with a shocking knockout of Jiri Prochazka that occurred moments after Ulberg appeared to severely injure his leg. Ulberg later announced he tore his ACL in the fight, leaving his division in a strange place.<\/p>\n

After watching Ankalaev beat Bogdan Guskov live at Etihad Arena, Ulberg took to his Instagram Stories on Sunday to provide an update on his health and do some fantasy matchmaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been asked the same two questions repeatedly,\u201d Ulberg wrote. \u201c1) How is the leg? Strong enough to remind a few people who the champion is. 2) Who do you want to defend the title against? That\u2019s not my decision. That\u2019s the UFC\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy responsibility is simple: Get healthy. Stay fit. Stay ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ankalaev, coming off a light heavyweight championship loss in his rematch with Alex Pereira, returned to the win column with a fifth-round knockout over Guskov that brought a definitive end to an otherwise dull fight that Ankalaev controlled from start to finish. Unbeaten in 15 of his past 16 fights, Ankalaev has his eye on becoming a two-time champion, but he\u2019s also open to fighting middleweight transplant<\/a> Paulo Costa.<\/p>\n

Pereira is currently out of the mix after vacating the light heavyweight belt to move to the heavyweight division, but Prochazka and Khalil Rountree Jr.\u2014originally scheduled to fight Ankalaev at UFC Abu Dhabi before withdrawing due to injury\u2014remain relevant contenders. Ulberg has an idea for finding the No. 1 contender at 205 pounds ahead of his return.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter last night\u2019s fight, here\u2019s my thoughts,\u201d Ulberg wrote. \u201cAnkalaev vs. Jiri. Give them both a full camp. It\u2019s a fight the division deserves, and stylistically it\u2019s one the fans would love to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosta vs. Rountree. That\u2019s the wild card. High risk, high reward. Someone\u2019s leaving with serious momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

A knee injury of the nature that Ulberg suffered can shelve an athlete for a lengthy period of time, possibly more than a year, but Ulberg has maintained an optimistic mind set when it comes to recovery. Though there\u2019s still no exact timetable for his return, Ulberg is ruling out the remainder of 2026 and expects the timing to work out for him to defend his championship against one of the worthy contenders sometime next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time the dust settles\u2026 I\u2019ll be ready,\u201d Ulberg wrote. \u201cWhoever earns it. See you in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Ulberg was in the house to watch Magomed Ankalaev take care of business in the UFC Abu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-827324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}