Carlos Ulberg Wants Ankalaev vs. Prochazka to Decide His Next Title Fight

Carlos Ulberg isn't fighting anytime soon, but the light heavyweight champion still wants a say in who's waiting for him when he gets back. Sidelined since April with a torn ACL suffered in the same fight he won the vacant 205-pound title, the 15-1 New Zealander used his Instagram to rule out a 2026 return and sketch out exactly how he'd book the division in the meantime.

Ulberg watched Magomed Ankalaev grind out a fifth-round knockout of Bogdan Guskov live at Etihad Arena, then offered his own contender bracket. He wants Ankalaev to fight Jiri Prochazka next — both men getting a full camp — and pitched a wild-card scrap between Paulo Costa and Khalil Rountree Jr. As he put it, someone walks away from that one with serious momentum.

The champion's own résumé earns him the right to matchmake. Ulberg took the vacant belt with a first-round KO of Prochazka in April, a finish that came moments after he appeared to badly hurt his own leg. He later confirmed the ACL tear — the kind of injury that can shelve a fighter for a year or more. He says the leg is now strong enough to remind a few people who the champion is, though there's still no firm timeline.

Where the Contenders Stand

Ankalaev is the obvious frontrunner. He's unbeaten in 15 of his last 16 fights and just got back in the win column after dropping his rematch with Alex Pereira. He's chasing a second title reign but has also floated a fight with middleweight transplant Costa. Prochazka, meanwhile, remains a live name despite the loss to Ulberg, and Rountree was originally booked opposite Ankalaev in Abu Dhabi before pulling out injured.

Pereira, ranked #3 at 205 on 13-4, is out of the picture entirely after vacating and moving to heavyweight — where his experiment stalled with a second-round KO loss to Ciryl Gane. That leaves the top of the division open enough that Ulberg's proposed pair of fights would genuinely clarify things.

Ulberg framed his own job as simple: get healthy, stay fit, stay ready. He expects the timing to line up for a title defense against whoever earns it sometime next year, signing off with a message that he'll see everyone in 2027. Fittingly, that's the same year Dana White and Conor McGregor both expect McGregor to return — so 205 won't be the only division holding its breath.