Jiri Prochazka vs. Carlos Ulberg is the main event of UFC 327, according to a 247Sports headline that went up Monday night. That’s the entire report as it reached us: two names, one event number. No date, no city, no word on whether a belt is attached.
The event number is where things get weird. The UFC has already run UFC 331, where Joshua Van beat Alexandre Pantoja in their rematch and Arman Tsarukyan knocked out Mauricio Ruffy with four seconds left in Round 1. UFC 332 happened last weekend in Salt Lake City, with Natalia Silva outpointing Wang Cong for the vacant women’s flyweight title. UFC 333 goes to Abu Dhabi on Oct. 24. UFC 334 lands at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 14, and UFC 335 is Dec. 12. A card numbered 327 sits behind every one of those.
Prochazka also already has a dance partner. MMA Junkie’s weekly Spinning Back Clique rundown lists him against Navajo Stirling at UFC Qatar on Nov. 21, on a card that also has Aljamain Sterling vs. Kevin Vallejos and Dan Hooker vs. Brian Ortega. Two main events for one guy in the same stretch of calendar don’t add up.
Where they sit at 205
The rankings tell their own story about Ulberg. The UFC Meta Rankings, updated after UFC 332 and published by MMA Mania, list him as the light heavyweight champion. Alex Pereira is No. 1 on that list, Magomed Ankalaev No. 2, Prochazka No. 3 and Stirling No. 7.
Combat Press has it differently, with Pereira at the top, Ulberg second, Ankalaev third and Prochazka fourth. Combat Press also noted no top-10 light heavyweight fought in September, so nothing in the division moved.
Ulberg’s stock is high enough that he’s creeping into pound-for-pound conversations. He was among the others receiving votes in Uncrowned’s October rankings, and voter Conner Burks had him seventh overall, one spot ahead of lightweight champ Justin Gaethje.
Pereira, meanwhile, is booked against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335 on Dec. 12. Pavlovich is No. 2 in the Meta heavyweight rankings, and Pereira already appears at No. 3 on that same heavyweight list.
My take
I’d pay full price for Prochazka vs. Ulberg tomorrow. Two guys who walk forward and throw, five rounds if you want them, nobody leaving early to beat traffic. But a lone headline with an event number that predates three cards already on the books is a weird thing to build a fight week around. My read is that this is either a stale story resurfacing or a numbering slip somewhere, and that’s my opinion, not reporting. Until the UFC puts it on a poster, the Prochazka fight on the books is Stirling, in Qatar, on Nov. 21.
