{"id":396642,"date":"2024-05-24T02:24:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T02:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396642"},"modified":"2024-05-24T03:04:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T03:04:36","slug":"ex-league-players-big-nod-for-mcgregors-ufc-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=396642","title":{"rendered":"Ex-league player's big nod for McGregor's UFC comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

After recording the third quickest knockout in UFC<\/a> light-heavyweight history, New Zealand's Carlos Ulberg has been added to the promotion's biggest card of the year at UFC 303<\/a>, alongside Conor McGregor.<\/p>\n

Ulberg impressed UFC bosses \ufeffwith his 12-second knockout victory over Alonzo Menifield in St Louis just two weeks ago, and came out of the clash completely unscathed.<\/p>\n

So when\ufeff Khalil Rountree Jr was suspended for PED use ahead of his fight with Jamahl Hill at UFC 303 – the co-main event alongside Conor McGregor v Michael Chandler – the promotion's decision makers picked Ulberg to step in.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Shock as Aussie gold medallist suddenly retires<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Teddy axed from 'radical' Blues 17 ahead of 'ambush'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Footy power couple 'pleased' after Fifita backflip<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

UFC 303 has already been confirmed as one of the highest selling gates ever, with a reported $30 million worth of tickets sold.<\/p>\n

Ulberg, a teammate of former featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski\ufeff, has won his past six fights dating back to 2022 and put himself on the radar with the monstrous performance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It's a career defining call up for the former rugby league player turned MMA\ufeff star, who has also tried his hand at modelling as well.<\/p>\n

Ulberg had dreams of playing NRL and\ufeff played rugby league for club team Otahuhu Leopards in New Zealand some 10 years ago, and was said to be on the Warriors radar, until he quit the game after he was suspended following an all-in brawl.<\/p>\n

While all the other participants were throwing haymakers, Ulberg contributed in other ways.<\/p>\n

"I was throwing knees and the camera was right on me," he told News Corp.<\/p>\n

"I was trying to separate one of our younger guys with a bigger fella but the judiciary put me out for six weeks.<\/p>\n

"That was leading into the finals too, where all the scouts come and look at you."<\/p>\n

He never played the game again and exerted all his energy into making it in the fight world.<\/p>\n

\ufeffUlberg will face a determined Jamahl Hill, who was defeated by Alex Pereira in April of this year at UFC 300, losing the title after 15-month lay-off.<\/p>\n

Hill was originally meant to face off with Rowntree, who tested positive to a banned anabolic steroid earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Rowntree was handed a two month-ban\ufeff after he self-reported the mistaken use of a dietary supplement that contained the anabolic steroid [DHEA].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After recording the third quickest knockout in UFC light-heavyweight history, New Zealand's Carlos Ulberg has been added to the promotion's biggest card of the year […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":396644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396645,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396642\/revisions\/396645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/396644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}