Injured former UFC champ expects Carlos Ulberg to be out for 9+ months

If anyone knows just how bad Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champ Carlos Ulberg’s injury is, it is someone who is going through the same thing.

The newly minted 205-pound king Ulberg starred in one of the most remarkable and improbable scenes in recent memory when he sustained a major injury to his knee in his championship bout atop UFC 327. What very well could be a serious ligament rupture was no reason for Ulberg to quit the fight, as he continued fighting and managed to knock out Jiri Prochazka to claim the vacant belt. His timetable for recovery is currently unknown, but he has already completed surgery, posting about it on Thursday on his Instagram Stories.

Ulberg is far from the only top-tier fighter to go through this, and not even the lone combatant to blow out his knee recently. Former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos ruptured his ACL in his last outing, succumbing to the knee injury 90 seconds into his UFC 308 contest with Geoff Neal in 2024. On Wednesday, Sherdog spoke with this former champ who appears to have suffered the same injury as Ulberg. “RDA” has not yet been cleared to compete again, and he provided a bit of information on the process, what he went through and what Ulberg may face going forward.

“If everything goes well with Ulberg, he’ll be back in nine months to a year,” dos Anjos identified. “After ACL surgery, you only can start doing some activity after six months. Being cleared to start training around nine months, until he gets in shape and can fight, takes a year. But thank God, Ulberg is in a great scenario to recover. After all, with the belt around his waist, everything is easier.”

The extended layoff for dos Anjos is hardly common, as he has not fought since that October night nearly 18 months ago. His situation, he claims was exacerbated in part due to incorrect decisions made by his attending doctors on at least two occasions.

“In October 2024, when I kicked Neal, I tore my cruciate ligament and meniscus,” the former champ explained. “I went to Brazil, had the surgery on my ACL ligament, and my doctor made the unfortunate decision to suture my meniscus, something that is normally only advisable for children and young people, not for a 40-year-old professional athlete. I went back to training, and in May 2025, my knee started to lock up and the suture tore.”