MIAMI — Talk about celebrating too early.
Jiri Prochazka had the light heavyweight championship in his back pocket on Saturday night at UFC 327 — or so it seemed.
Carlos Ulberg appeared to have badly injured his leg and was on his way to a TKO loss.
Prochazka began celebrating and styling on his opponent, but he got clipped and knocked out cold in a mistake-filled light heavyweight title loss.
“The fight was over,” White told reporters at the post-fight press conference.
“But I guess it’s not over until it’s over.”
Ulberg said afterward he blew out his knee and will likely require surgery, as White said that the back of his leg was hurting, perhaps pointing to a torn ACL.
“I blew out my knee, but I never counted myself out,” Ulberg said. “I knew all I needed was that one shot, and I ended up getting it. So I knew that Jiri was hesitant to come forward.”
Perhaps Prochazka (32-6-1) should have been more hesitant. He gets knocked out just as it looked like he had the fight in the bag.
“I felt sorry (for) him, and this is one of the biggest lessons in my life,” Prochazka said. “That fight was won, I had it, it was in my hands. I saw his injury, and … I will be back. Life is about that, learn and be better.”
For better or worse, Ulberg (15-1-0) is now the light heavyweight champion, though any other result would have been better than this.
Overall, it’s the worst-case scenario for the UFC, as Prochazka was the crowd favorite in this fight and had the crowd at his fingertips.
The UFC’s new light heavyweight champion has just 158,000 followers on Instagram (yes, that matters) and a blown-out knee that will sideline him for the rest of the year.
With light heavyweight now in flux again, there’s a reasonable expectation that the promotion will need to find a new champion to compete for the belt in an interim fashion.
Perhaps middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev jumps up to light heavyweight to fight for the interim belt, or maybe Paulo Costa gets a look as a contender in his new division.
Costa looked about as good as ever in the co-main event, as he knocked Azamat Murazkanov out with a head kick.
Costa, who is not yet ranked in the light heavyweight division, but he just beat the No. 6-ranked fighter in the division, certainly drew at least some conversations about whether he can contend for the title.
“Put some respect on my name,” Costa boasted as he danced for President Donald Trump in the center of the octagon.
All we have in light heavyweight is problems now that Ulberg is the champion, and he looks to be injured, but get ready for some funky answers from here.
The show must go on, as they say in show business.
If only Prochazka hadn’t counted his chickens before they hatched.
