Newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champion Carlos Ulberg is already rehabbing his surgically repaired knee less than a week after going under the knife for damage suffered in the UFC 327 main event.
Ulberg, 35, sustained the injury during his title-winning performance at UFC 327 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, and is now back on his feet and exercising the knee as part of an early recovery push. He is expected to return to action in early 2027.
“He’s gonna stay in Vegas,” UFC CEO Dana White said, outlining the plan for Ulberg’s rehab. “He’s got the surgery, and he’s gonna start working at the PI. Apparently, where he lives in [New Zealand], he’s in a remote part of the country, so there isn’t much around him.”
White pointed to the UFC Performance Institute as a key factor in Ulberg’s recovery. “What we would do before we built the Performance Institute is we would get these guys surgeries with great doctors, and then they’d go home, and they wouldn’t do anything,” White said. “They didn’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.”
White also stated that no decision has been made on a possible interim light heavyweight title during Ulberg’s layoff.
