"How on earth did you hurt your knees?" Ulberg became the light-heavyweight champion of "1R KO win"... Swanson ends career with TKO [UFC]

*This content was translated by AI.

"Black Jag" Carlos Ulberg (35, New Zealand) has become the new UFC light heavyweight (93kg). Even though he hurt his knee, he won the KO in the first round, drawing admiration.

Ulberg (14-1) won KO against former champion and current No. 2 Yuri Prohaska (33, Czech Republic) with a ground-punch hit following a left-handed hook in 3:45 of the first round in the main event of "UFC 327: Prohaska vs Ulberg" held at the Caseya Center in Miami, Florida on the 12th (Korea time).

As a result, Ulberg won the UFC light heavyweight title, which was returned by "Poatan" Alex Pereira (38, Brazil) to challenge the heavyweight (10.2kg).

In the midst of the defeat, a come-from-behind KO broke out. Wolberg sprained his right leg while trying to fight back with a left-handed check hook, avoiding an attack from Prohasca. Then Wolberg began to limp. Prohasca kicked Ulberg's front leg, his left leg, to take the lead. However, while pressing Wolberg, who was unable to balance and was shaking, with his guard down, he collapsed after being hit by a left-handed check hook. Ulberg immediately followed in and punched back-to-back hits, and Prohasca lost consciousness.

"My knee went out, but I never thought I was done," Wolberg said in a winner interview, looking back on the game, "I knew that all I needed was one shot, and I finally hit it." "I have to solve the knee problem, but now I'm the champion," he said with joy. "Even before the game, I said everything was going to change," Wolberg declared, "Now I'm the king of light heavyweights."

Loser Prohaska expressed regret that having sympathy for Wolberg, who injured his knee, became an excuse for defeat. "I felt sorry and sympathetic when I saw Wolberg (who hurt his knee)," he said. "The victory was in my hands, but I missed the victory when I saw him injured. That's what life is like. I will learn and get better," he vowed.

"He made a mistake," Wolberg said at a postgame news conference, regarding Prohaska's failure to take full advantage of his injury. I would never have done that." "If you go up to the Octagon to win the title, you have to do anything to win," he stressed.

As for the next opponent, he said, "I don't know who will be the candidate for the title challenger," adding, "I'll leave the next opponent to the matchmaker, and I don't know what it will be when I go back to the gym, but I'll prepare for the next one."

In the first match of the main card of this tournament, UFC Hall of Fame inductee Cup Swanson (42, USA) decorated his retirement match with a brilliant TKO. Swanson ended the game by knocking down Nate Landwear (37, USA) twice with punches.

From the start of the game, Swanson showed as agile a movement as he was in his heyday, targeting Landwear. He hit the punch several times, making Landwear's legs shake, and eventually knocked down Landwear, which fell and rose, with a left-hand hook. Landware got up and recovered, but Swanson pressed Landware once again and knocked it down with a right-handed overhand hook to wrap up the game.

Swanson put his glove on the floor, ending his 22-year journey that began in 2004. He expressed his feelings, saying, "I'm feeling overwhelmed." "I've been a player for a long time, but I get scared every time I come up to the stadium," he said. "I tried to be brave, to focus only on the game, and I'm really proud to be able to do that tonight." He celebrated his retirement with his wife, Kenda Perez, who was a UFC broadcast host, and three children.

The UFC played a tribute video to Cup Swanson. Among them, the highlight was a great match against Choi Doo-ho, a 2016 "Korean Superboy" who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame "Fight Wing" in 2022. Swanson, who was ranked fourth in the UFC featherweight (65.8kg) rankings at the time, won a unanimous decision after a neck-and-neck battle against 11th-ranked Choi Doo-ho, who came up with three consecutive wins. It was named the 2016 game of the year and six years later, the two players were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Swanson, who began his professional fighter career in July 2004 at the age of 20, recorded a career record of 31 wins and 14 losses. In 2007, he entered the WEC, the top lightweight group at the time, and recorded 5 wins and 3 losses, and 16 wins and 10 losses in the UFC after the WEC was merged into the UFC in 2011. He is the No. 1 featherweight all-time winner with the No. 11 Fight Night bonus, and is tied for No. 1 featherweight with Josh Emmett with 12 knockdowns.

Swanson said in a post-match press conference, "The fighting is painful," adding, "For a long time, I've set a high threshold for pain and ignored it, saying to myself, 'It's okay,' but that stage is now over, too. Now it's better to live by sharing what I know with the next generation. I made a team called Bloodline Combat Sports, and now I'm putting my passion into it," he said, announcing his plan to focus on nurturing his students after retirement.

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*This content was translated by AI.