Carlos Ulberg sends message with 1st-round KO of Dominick Reyes

New Zealand's Carlos Ulberg made short work of UFC light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes on Saturday night with an effortless first-round stoppage at 4:27 at UFC Fight Night in Perth, Australia.

Ulberg (13-1 MMA) kept his messaging simple following his ninth consecutive UFC win, confirming his attendance for next Saturday's UFC 320 title fight rematch in Las Vegas between Russian Magomed Ankalaev (21-1, 1 NC) and ex-light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (12-3) of Brazil.

"I'm coming (for the belt)," Ulberg said following the fight.

American Reyes (15-4 MMA) had a three-fight winning streak snapped, suffering his first KO/TKO loss since November 2022 to Ryan Spann.

The co-headliner at light heavyweight saw the home country's Jimmy Crute (14-4-2) win back-to-back fights, this time beating Croatia's Ivan Erslan (14-6) by rear-naked-choke at 3:19 of the first round. Erslan is still without a UFC win through three appearances, last coming away with a victory in February 2024. Meanwhile, Crute's submission was his sixth of his career.

Featherweight Jack Jenkins of Australia used his volume striking and forward movement to overcome the always durable Ramon Taveras of the United States by unanimous decision: 30-27, 30-27, 29-28. Jenkins (14-4) has won five of his last seven, while Taveras (10-4) has lost three of his last five and has gone just over 20 months without a win.

For the second straight fight, UFC welterweight veteran Neil Magny of the United States kept the submission trend rolling with a d'arce choke against Australian fan favorite Jake Matthews at 3:08 of the third round. Magny (31-14) survived an early onslaught from Matthews (22-8) before rallying to secure his 24th UFC win and improve his winning streak to two.

The UFC Fight Night main card began with lightweight Tom Nolan of Australia securing a rear-naked choke over American Charlie Campbell at 4:08 of the first round. Nolan (10-1) halted a three-fight winning streak from Campbell (9-3), who had not lost since August 2022.

--Field Level Media