{"id":648403,"date":"2026-05-04T05:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648403\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T05:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:46:09","slug":"is-brando-pericic-ufcs-next-heavyweight-star-im-here-to-throw-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648403\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Brando Pericic UFC&#8217;s next heavyweight star? &#8216;I&#8217;m here to throw down&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 3, 2026, 6:50 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em_vp_a gnt_em_vp__yt_a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=beJo9BU9aOY&amp;pp=0gcJCd4KAYcqIYzv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-g-r=\"vp_tg\" aria-label=\"Play YouTube video\" data-v-t=\"Brando Peric\u030cic\u0301 Octagon Interview | UFC Perth\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"gnt_em_vp_img gnt_em_vp_img__yn\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/beJo9BU9aOY\/maxresdefault.jpg\" onload=\"if(this.naturalWidth&lt;200){this.setAttribute('onload','this.classList.remove(\\'gnt_em_vp_img__yn\\')');this.src=\" https:=\"\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Brando Pericic met the media Saturday after his win over Shamil Gaziev at UFC\u00a0Fight Night 275.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Pericic (7-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Gaziev (14-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) gave the fans a show on the main card at\u00a0RAC Arena in\u00a0Perth, Western Australia. The heavyweights turned in a Fight of the Night performance, but it was Pericic who left with a knockout nearly four minutes into the second round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Pericic has all his wins by stoppage, including his first three in the UFC in less than eight months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I&#8217;m pissed off that I left the first round &#8211; I should&#8217;ve gotten him out of there,&#8221; Pericic told the UFC after the win. &#8220;But we went through some adversity this camp, and I&#8217;m glad I got the finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I&#8217;m not here to go to the judges&#8217; scorecards. I&#8217;m not here to touch and move. I&#8217;m here to f*cking throw down and get the win. I&#8217;m glad I went to the second round (to show) I&#8217;m ready for five rounds.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Pericic said because of what he&#8217;s been through in life before his MMA career, it helps him appreciate the opportunities he has in the UFC. The 31-year-old City Kickboxing product went so far as to say MMA saved his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;When I go out there, I want to represent the struggles I&#8217;ve been through and give that to the crowd \u2013\u00a0give them that big KO win,&#8221; Pericic said. &#8220;The sh*t I&#8217;ve been through in life, that&#8217;s the actual fight. This is easy. There was no nerves in there for me. I wouldn&#8217;t care if that&#8217;s the champion \u2013 I&#8217;d have done the same thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Pericic, whose Southeastern Europe heritage from the Balkan region led to his &#8220;Balkan Bear&#8221; nickname, said he&#8217;s keen to fight when the UFC makes its debut in Serbia later this year. UFC Belgrade is set for Aug. 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Check out Pericic&#8217;s post-fight interview in the video below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 3, 2026, 6:50 p.m. ET Brando Pericic met the media Saturday after his win over Shamil Gaziev&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[202558,64,63,786,785,85,203779,203780,203781,202563,203139,202561],"class_list":["post-648403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-accessfree","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-sstssportsufc","tag-sstsnufc","tag-tagmartial-arts","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}