UFC Perth blew the roof off RAC Arena last Saturday night (Sept. 27, 2025) in Perth, Western Australia, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Ivan Erslan, who was submitted by Jimmy Crute in the very first round (video highlights here).
And Jake Matthews, who had a victory snatched from him due to an odd call from the referee, which ultimately led to a submission loss to Neil Nagny (see it again here). But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover,
now a few days removed from the show?
Dominick Reyes.
Coming into his headlining bout against Carlos Ulberg, Reyes had been enjoying a career resurgence after racking up three straight wins after a horrid four-fight losing streak. The former title contender was hoping to lock down his first four-fight win streak in six years and possibly inch closer to another shot that had eluded him since coming up short against Jon Jones back in 2020.
Unfortunately for Reyes, his momentum came to a halt in a rather quick and violent way.
From the jump, Ulberg came out aggressive with his striking attack, peppering Reyes with his long jab and precise straight punches. With less than a minute left in the opening frame, Ulberg tagged Reyes with a clean two-punch combo that touched him right on the sweet spot, sending him crashing to the canvas. “Black Jag” followed up with a vicious right hand while Reyes was down, which put him out for the count for good.
“Congratulations to Carlos, just wasn’t my night,” Reyes wrote shortly after the fight on social media. “God is always good.”
The loss is especially tough for Reyes because at 35 years of age, starting over from scratch and trying to mount another streak like the one he had ruined by Ulberg will be a tall task to say the least. The division is still loaded with veterans and up-and-comers who are trying to carve their own path for the future, which means any challenge for “The Dominator” will be a tough out.
That said, he is still ranked inside the Top 10 at No. 7, so if he can bounce back with a win in his next outing he won’t lose too much traction.
As far as what potential challenge that could be, a rematch against Volkan Oezdemir might be in order. The two men initially threw down way back in March 2019, which saw Reyes walk away with a razor-thin split decision, much to the chagrin of “No Time.” Both men have been all over the place when it comes to wins and losses since their initial encounter and, coincidentally enough, Oezdemir’s last defeat came at the hands of Ulberg, who defeated him via unanimous decision in Nov. 2024.
Oezdemir is 2-1 in his last three fights and is currently sitting just two spot behind Reyes on the official UFC rankings at No. 9 so it might be time to run it back to see who can get back on track again.
For complete UFC Perth results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
