Carlos Ulberg suffers gruesome injury moments before knocking out Jiri Prochazka to win title at UFC 327

Carlos Ulberg blew his knee just before knocking out Jiri Prochazka in remarkable scenes to win his first UFC title.

With former light heavyweight king Alex Pereira moving up to the heavyweight division, Ulberg fought Prochazka for the vacant 205lbs strap in the main event of UFC 327 in Miami on Saturday.

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The New Zealander faced adversity in the opening exchanges as Prochazka, a former light heavyweight champion himself, landed several damaging calf kicks.

It wasn’t long before Ulberg took a wrong step, and his entire right leg seemed to explode.

Prochazka, as he later admitted during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, looked like he almost felt sorry for Ulberg — a crucial mistake.

With less than 90 seconds left in round one, Ulberg was hobbling back to the cage on one knee.

Prochazka smelled the finish was near and came rushing, but Ulberg took one step back and cracked the Czech Republic man with a thunderous left hook from hell.

Referee Marc Goddard allowed Prochazka plenty of time to recover, but after several more blows on the canvas, he was done and out.

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Ulberg revealed after the fight that it was indeed his knee that was injured, with UFC CEO Dana White later saying it could be an ACL injury.

“It’s all about that one shot,” Ulberg told Rogan.

“He said he’d hunt me, but you can’t hunt what you can’t kill.

“I knew all I needed was that one shot, and I ended up getting it.”

A super emotional Prochazka said: “I felt mercy in that fight.

“I felt so sorry for him, so man, this is one of the biggest lessons of my life.

“That fight was won, and I had it in my hands.”

Ulberg is now riding a 10-fight winning streak at light heavyweight — the longest among active fighters in the division.

And, of course, the 35-year-old leaves Miami as the new UFC light heavyweight champion.

Prochazka, meanwhile, was unsuccessful in his third attempt to reclaim the light heavyweight throne.

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He will now jet urgently back to the Czech Republic to see his girlfriend, Kamila Kordulikova, who is due to give birth to a baby girl in a matter of days.

A former champion at Japanese MMA promotion Rizin, Prochazka won the UFC light heavyweight title for the first time in just his third promotional appearance.

He submitted veteran Glover Teixeira in June 2021 but dropped the belt to the former’s protege Pereira, who proved to be Prochazka’s kryptonite, 17 months later.

After bouncing back with a stoppage win over Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300, Prochazka was unsuccessful in his rematch with Pereira, with ‘Poatan’ scoring a viral head-kick KO in the second round of their June 2024 clash.

Prochazka then cemented his status as the second best at 205lbs through wins against Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr in his last fight at UFC 320 ahead of this weekend.

The fan-favourite was linked to meet Pereira in a trilogy, having explained to talkSPORT.com that his No. 1 objective was to fight for the belt again.

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But Pereira, also a former champion at middleweight, decided to leave the division to pursue an interim heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane, which acts as the chief support to Ilia Topuria vs Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 in June.

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