Kiwi UFC light heavyweight champion Carlos Ulberg is set for a months-long recovery period after undergoing knee surgery.
The 35-year-old had a successful operation to repair an ACL tear in his knee and has begun rehabilitating the injury at the UFC Performance Institute (PI) in Las Vegas.
TheKiwi remained in the United States following his win in order to receive medical treatment, and UFC president Dana White told media on Sunday that things were tracking well for the newly minted champion, who is likely facing a recovery timeline of nine months to a year.
“He was at Power Slap last night and I was talking to him. He’s going to stay in Vegas. He got the surgery, he’s going to start working at the PI,” White said.
“What we used to find before we built the Performance Institute is we would get these guys surgery with great doctors, then they would go back home and wouldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t do any physical therapy or recovery.
“Now with the PI, that place has saved more fights and helped more athletes prolong their careers. We’ll get him in there and see how fast he starts to recover. We always figure it out.”
Dana White (inset) says light heavyweight champion Carlos Ulberg is set to begin his recovery after knee surgery. Photos / Getty Images
White confirmed that the promotion has not yet had any discussions about stripping Ulberg of the belt or holding an interim title fight while the Kiwi was out of action.
“Carlos is still getting set up here, but we will figure it out.”
Ulberg, who shared an image of himself post-surgery on social media, has not yet commented on his current status. However, his manager, Ash Belcastro, confirmed to renowned MMA journalist Ariel Helwani that the newly crowned champion had torn his ACL.
The Kiwi suffered the injury about two minutes into his bout against Jiri Prochazka for the vacant title at UFC 327 in Florida earlier this month.
However, it didn’t prevent him from leaving the Kaseya Centre with the championship belt in his possession.
Despite being unable to properly bear weight on his leg, Ulberg continued to look for opportunities to end the fight. He ultimately found one when Prochazka tried to close the gap with the Kiwi’s back to the fence – Ulberg landed a big left hook to begin the finishing sequence.
It was Ulberg’s 10th win in a row, which is the second-longest winning streak in UFC light heavyweight history behind former champion Jon Jones, who won 13 bouts in a row between 2010 and 2017.
