The more things change, the more they stay the same in the UFC’s light heavyweight division.

The 205-pound weight class got a new champion — again – this past Saturday. And yet again, that new champ won’t be available to put that belt on the line for a good long time, in all likelihood.

Carlos Ulberg (14-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) pulled off a stunner in the UFC 327 main event at Kaseya Center in Miami when he knocked out Jiri Prochazka (32-6-1 MMA, 6-3 UFC) in the first round. That Ulberg put Prochazka out wasn’t the surprising part. It was the fact that he did it after he suffered a knee injury early in the fight, and after Prochazka had him on the ropes – but didn’t put him away.

Ulberg stayed in the fight and landed a left hand that dropped Prochazka, and a couple more on the canvas ended the night and made Ulberg the new champ. But that injury was as bad as initially feared, and Ulberg almost certainly will be out in the range of a year. Afterward, Prochazka claimed he was showing mercy to an injured opponent and paid the price – which was met with an overwhelming eye roll by critics who said he was making an excuse for yet another title fight loss, and one that seemed to be easily within reach for a win.

Ulberg’s manager told Uncrowned the fighter tore his ACL in the fight and had surgery Thursday that “went really well.”

But once again, there’s a new UFC light heavyweight champion who won’t be able to defend the title for a while, leaving the division in need of further upheaval at best, or on hold till Ulberg returns at worst.

Jon Jones vacated the light heavyweight title in 2020. Since then, the promotion has had six 205-pound champions in six years.

Jan Blachowicz won the title Jones vacated when he beat Dominick Reyes at UFC 253, and he defended it when then-middleweight champion Israel Adesanya moved up to go for a second belt. But he dropped it to Glover Teixeira in 2021.

In June 2022, Prochazka submitted Teixeira in the final seconds of their title fight at UFC 275 to win the belt, but Prochazka vacated it several months later due to a shoulder injury. In the wake of that, a vacant title bout between Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 282 ended in a draw.

At UFC 283, Jamahal Hill won the vacant belt against Teixeira. But when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in a pickup basketball game during International Fight Week, he had to vacate the belt, too.

Pereira brought some stability back when he knocked out Prochazka at UFC 295 for the vacant belt, and he defended it against Hill, Prochazka and Khalil Rountree Jr. before he lost it in an upset to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313.

Pereira took the title back from Ankalaev at UFC 320 with a first-round knockout, but vacated it in February so he could move to heavyweight and go after an unprecedented title in a third division in the UFC.

Now it remains to be decided what Ulberg will have to do as champion given ACL tears typically are an injury that keeps athletes sidelined for 9-12 months. The UFC hasn’t instituted interim light heavyweight titles in the recent past because Prochazka and Hill both vacated their belts before they could defend them.

Be in interim or otherwise, if the UFC wants to put a belt around someone at 205 pounds, its options at the top of the division include a series of fighters who already have had the belt, or shots at it, including Ankalaev, Prochazka – who now has knockout losses in three title fights – Blachowicz, Rountree and Hill.

Paulo Costa’s upset knockout of the previously unbeaten Azamat Murzakanov at UFC 327 in the co-main event raised some eyebrows, but that was just Costa’s second light heavyweight fight in the UFC. He previously fought for the title at middleweight.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Carlos Ulberg tore ACL in UFC 327 title win vs. Jiri Prochazka: Report