One week out from the light heavyweight championship rematch between champ Magomed Ankalaev and former two-division champ Alex Pereira at UFC 320, elite contenders Dominick Reyes and Carlos Ulberg had the chance to make a statement that they should be the next man up for whoever emerges as champion. Ulberg was the man who delivered the message, scoring a brutal first-round knockout in Perth, Australia.
The first round was fought at a fairly slow pace, with Reyes especially hesitant to pull the trigger. Ulberg was able to connect with leg kicks and the occasional punch as the fighters seemed to be feeling each other out. Still, the sense was building that Ulberg was in control of the action with Reyes looking uncertain of when to throw his own strikes.
Ulberg landed a hard jab followed by a right hand to the chin that dropped Reyes to the canvas. Ulberg followed Reyes to the canvas and landed two hard punches that removed Reyes from his senses and forced the referee to jump in and call a halt to the action at the 4:27 mark of Round 1.
After the fight, Ulberg made it clear that he wanted to be put in position to face the winner of the Oct. 4 bout between Ankalaev and Pereira.
“That’s exactly what we wanted,” Ulberg said. “I just spoke to [UFC chief business officer] Hunter [Campbell] and we’re going to be talking about something. Fly me to Vegas so I can watch those guys fight.”
With the win, Ulberg ran his winning streak to nine, with six of those wins coming by stoppage. Having entered the fight No. 3 in the UFC’s official light heavyweight rankings, it’s hard to deny his place as the next man up.
After losing a wildly controversial decision to then-light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 247, Reyes fell on hard times, dropping three consecutive fights by knockout. While Reyes was counted out by many, he rebounded with three consecutive knockouts to climb back up the rankings and earn a fight with Ulberg that could have catapulted him to another shot at the title.
Unfortunately for Reyes, and fortunately for Ulberg, it was the New Zealander’s night.
