Preview: UFC Perth

---

Buckle up folks, the Ultimate Fighting Championship road show is about to hit a whole other gear.

The world’s premier mixed martial arts promotion is set to visit five different countries in the next five weeks—on four different continents—starting with this Saturday’s fight night in Perth, Western Australia. Five road cards in a row place certain stresses on the UFC’s talent pool, especially for the three events that are not pay-per-views, and it shows in the fairly thin lineup here; on the entire card, only the Carlos Ulberg-Dominick Reyes headliner features two ranked fighters.

Beyond simple divisional stakes, however, cards like UFC Perth can benefit from geographically appropriate matchmaking, and in that respect the UFC nailed it. Of the 14 fights scheduled to take place in RAC Arena, 13 feature an Oceanic fighter against an international foe. That’s the kind of sensible booking that can help put butts in seats and elevate the feeling of an otherwise routine fight card.

Here is the preview for the six-fight main card of UFC Fight Night 260, also known as UFC Perth:

Light Heavyweights

Carlos Ulberg (12-1) vs. Dominick Reyes (15-4)

Odds: Ulberg (-240); Reyes (+200)

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Ulberg’s rise to light heavyweight title contention is how routine and inevitable it has felt. Joining the UFC out of Dana White's Contender Series four years ago, “Black Jag” stumbled out of the gate, getting caught and knocked out by Kennedy Nzechukwu in his UFC debut in a fight he had been winning handily, and picking up his first career loss.

All too often, that kind of setback for a red-hot prospect exposes previously undiagnosed technical flaws or a fragile psyche, and the former up-and-comer is never quite the same again. Not so for Ulberg, who simply dusted himself off and proceeded to win his next eight fights in a row over progressively tougher opponents, culminating in a decision victory against former champ Jan Blachowicz in March. He has not been in serious danger of losing any of them, proving conclusively that the loss in his debut was a fluke rather than a indicator of future trouble.

As a fighter, the 34-year-old Kiwi is a big, athletic, light heavyweight who employs a measured kickboxing approach. While he is a longtime teammate of former middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, if anything, Ulberg’s style is more reminiscent of Adesanya’s nemesis, Alex Pereira. He has a crushing jab that he uses as a rangefinder and rhythm disruptor as well as a serious offensive tool in its own right, and pairs it with a stiff cross. His leg kicks are among the best in the division, and once he establishes them, he freely mixes in kicks to the body and head.

While Ulberg is a striker by training and inclination, he has proven increasingly difficult to take down and harder to keep there, and as his third-round submission win over Da Woon Jung showed, he is perfectly capable of mounting his own offense there. In short, Ulberg is coming into his own as a complete mixed martial artist. Paired with his poster-boy looks, he is poised to make the move to the next tier, competitively as well as in terms of stardom—if he can get past Reyes on Saturday.

Reyes’ UFC run has been a roller coaster ride, to say the least. After winning his first six bouts in the promotion, he earned a shot at Jon Jones at UFC 247 in February of 2020 and took the divisional GOAT to the wire in a fight many observers thought Reyes should have won. That fight showed Reyes to be capable of beating anyone in the world on any given night, but instead of pointing the way to a long run among the division’s elite, Reyes went on to lose his next three in a row, all by knockout, looking worse each time.

“The Devastator” appeared to be in free-fall and likely on his way out of the UFC—and the sport—but after an 18-month hiatus, he returned to the Octagon last June with a first-round knockout of Dustin Jacoby. He has gone on to win twice more, both by knockout, earning this matchup and his first UFC main event since 2021. Should he defeat Ulberg, it would cap off one of the more remarkable career turnarounds in UFC history.

In terms of technique and tactics, he remains essentially the same fighter he was in the middle of his long win streak as well as his long losing streak; the formula simply seems to be working again. The former college football player is a big, explosive, powerful athlete, which fuels most of his offense. He throws a variety of hard kicks, and while he could stand to use his punches in combination more often, the punches themselves are straight and powerful. He is a capable offensive and defensive wrestler and an absolute beast to deal with in the clinch: Reyes may or may not have deserved to beat Jones in their title fight, but it is undeniable that nobody has held his own against the longtime champ in his wheelhouse the way Reyes did.

It is difficult to pin down exactly what has happened to change Reyes’ fortunes, other than the facile observation that everything seems to be working again. Perhaps the time off was just what he needed, as he seems sharper, quicker, and far more able to shake off his opponents’ offense. He is a live dog in this fight; the way Nzechukwu caught Ulberg all those years ago may have been a low-percentage thing, but it’s something Reyes could certainly emulate, and while Ulberg’s defensive wrestling and grappling are constantly improving, Reyes is one of the best offensive wrestlers Ulberg has faced. Plausible routes to victory do exist.

Those are outside chances, however, and the surging New Zealander is a big favorite for a reason. The pick here is that Reyes’ Cinderella story comes to an end, or at least hits another speed bump, and Ulberg shows that it’s his time for a shot at the belt. Ulberg should steadily get the better of the striking exchanges, piling up the damage on Reyes, and catching him with something big in the late first or early second round for a TKO victory.



Jump To »
Ulberg vs. Reyes
Jenkins vs. Taveras
Crute vs. Erslan
Matthews vs. Magny
Nolan vs. Campbell
Tafa vs. Sutherland
The Prelims