UFC fighter Carlos Ulberg: 'This is my career, but also my university'

"I was always known for breaking stuff. Every home I went to. Known for breaking something, or breaking someone."

When Carlos Ulberg talks about growing up, he speaks of the many lives he's lived. He recalls at the age of five moving in with his dad, who taught him how to cook and read and spell, with boxing drills or push-ups meted out whenever he spelt a word wrong. He lived with his strict Samoan Aunties who taught him to be respectful, and do the dishes.

He also grew up in foster care from time to time, "growing up in different families, different boys' homes, gave me a perspective of a different life, different lives".

"I had a head-start in that sense, understanding that life can change in different ways. One year you might be in a great home, or another year you might be getting bullied from the older guy in the boys' home."

These are tough lessons to learn as a kid, but Ulberg says he's grateful he was exposed to these other realms of life.

"I saw my mum yesterday, I love my mum dearly. You know, life can throw you curveballs at any time. If I was living with my mum at the time, I probably would have been in a different story."

The story Ulberg is living now is one he manifested as a mischievous youngster in Ōtara, who sensed somehow he was destined for big things. "I can only take it positively, because look at where I am now … I'm in the UFC. These are distant dreams that I had. I always knew."

Ulberg is less than a week out from his second fight in the UFC. After securing a contract with an impressive knockout win over Bruno Oliveira in Dana White's Contender Series, Ulberg lost his UFC debut to Kennedy Nzechukwu via second round knockout. Still, it was an entertaining fight, dominated by Ulberg in the first round, and one which secured him and his opponent a USD $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus. 

"I sat back after the fight thinking, where did I go wrong?" Ulberg reflected on the loss, "OK, I went too hard in the first round. Which is fine. I'm used to finishing people in the first round ... I sat back too much."

"Some of the shots Carlos hit the guy with would have dropped most light-heavyweights, most heavyweights … The guy just somehow withstood it," said City Kickboxing teammate and UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya of Ulberg's UFC debut. "It's his redemption time. Carlos is in a great place right now, a great space of mind, I can feel it." 

Just like Ulberg has done many times in his life before, he's making adjustments. He's been studying tape, different fights and fighters, he's been focusing on how to get better at wrestling, jiu jitsu, judo, keeping journals of what he's learned. "This is my career, but this is [also] my university."

It was his dad, a boxer who represented Samoa at the Commonwealth Games, and those homework boxing drills, that laid the foundation of combat sports for Ulberg. "He started that for me, that engine going for me.

"The Ulbergs, they were known in Samoa for being the fighters. So I was like, if my family is known for that - why don't I just continue that too. It started from a very young age. That was just me being physical. I was always known for breaking stuff. Every home I went to. Known for breaking something, or breaking someone."

But it wasn't the bright lights of the boxing ring, or octagon, that he'd initially predicted for himself. Perhaps he'd be a movie star, he'd thought. And then, as he showed talent in rugby, made the high school First XV and played for local clubs he figured, "Movie star or All Black". Yet, rugby wasn't quite challenging enough.

"Rugby was great, but then there was rugby league. The guys doing rugby league are bigger, stronger and it's more physical. So I was like OK, I'll join league and I'll join the Warriors."

There was a kind of sliding doors moment for Carlos Ulberg when, in his early 20s, he'd proved himself as a promising league player, playing for the Otahuhu Leopards and making the Counties Manukau development squad. The Warriors and Vulcans coaches had taken an interest in him. He thought this might be the year he makes a breakthrough with the Warriors.

Until a fight broke out during a televised game. As players were getting knocked down, the camera focused on Ulberg, who was putting his kickboxing training he'd been learning on the side to use. Other players were throwing punches, he was throwing knees. "It's not really connecting or anything, but it looks different, so the camera zooms on me." He was banned from playing for six weeks. 

"I was gutted, I was crying … It was at that time, that moment where I was thinking damn, I've stuffed it up for myself [by] fighting, you know? Fighting!"

And so it was that fighting closed one door, while opening up what would turn out to be many more. The ban meant he started training boxing and kickboxing more, under the tutelage of legendary coach Lolo Heimuli who put Ulberg on a China vs NZ kickboxing show. It was Ulberg's first kickboxing fight, and he secured himself a contract to fight in China. 

"It was a very small gap where people had known me for being a great rugby league player to being a fighter. 'Like what? This guy's fighting now?'" Ulberg fought in China for three years, his fights broadcast to millions of people, but he found whenever he was back in New Zealand he was flying under the radar, "I'd come back home, this big star in China, but people are still like, 'Oh, do you fight? What have you been doing?'"

By now, the UFC was on his mind and he figured he needed to fight in NZ if he wanted to grow local support,

"You can't just go into the UFC, or have that dream of being in the UFC when your hometown doesn't even know who you are." He moved to train at City Kickboxing, knowing training partners at the gym would spur him on to get better.

"It's the iron that's gonna sharpen you, those training partners that's really going to make you a better you, because you want to have someone test you all the time."

ulberg set about growing his NZ fanbase by entering King in the Ring and became a two-time champion, winning the 2017 and 2019 eight-man elimination tournament.

"I was like maybe the first one was just a fluke, maybe I just got lucky … The 2019 one was a stamp for me, just gave me a bit more confidence." The following year, Ulberg secured his UFC contract with his knockout win over Oliveira a little over two minutes into the first round. 

Ulberg said due to the pandemic, his move into the UFC came quicker than the team had planned for. Since Ulberg's loss, CKB Coach Eugene Bareman said confidence is what they've been working on.

"It's not a skill thing. Carlos has some very good wrestling, he's super athletic so it's just about instilling some mental confidence in Carlos' skills."

Ulberg remembers the questions racing through his head in that debut, "Should I take him down? Should I? Should I? Should I? Nah, sit back and relax. Chill. If I do, then I might get choked."

"A lot of people have very good skill sets but actually convincing themselves and being confident enough to use those things, that takes a little bit of work and that's more the mental side of the sport," explains Bareman. 

"We've done quite a bit of work on that and to be honest it hasn't been that hard. That's just been some positive reinforcement and adjusting his sparring so that he's actually doing some things that he's not completely comfortable with, but then realising that he's actually good at it."

Ulberg laughs after predicting a first round knock-out for his upcoming fight against Fabio Cherant on UFC 271. Obviously he'd love an easy finish, he said, but he also wants to showcase the rest of his abilities, to learn more while he's in the octagon. "There's so much more to what I've been working on here. I look forward to tapping into that, and having that confidence to tap into that."

Whatever happens, expect Ulberg to draw on his life experience to learn, to grow, to adjust. "I'm still young and I'm still fresh, I'm still green and I've got a big career ahead of me."