The story that has UFC fans buzzing this week has nothing to do with the octagon. Heavyweight contender Brando Peričić, currently ranked twelfth in the division, appears to have hauled in a payday on the water that rivals anything he could earn across a full career in the cage.
Peričić went out for what looked like a routine fishing trip and came back with a bluefin tuna weighing 535 lbs (243 kg). One video breaking down the catch spelled out just how significant that number is: “Guys, a 535-pound bluefin tuna sells for $3.2 million.”
Bluefin have long carried a reputation as one of the most valuable catches in the ocean, prized overseas for their meat and known to command jaw-dropping prices when the right fish meets the right buyer. If that valuation holds, Peričić didn’t just land a personal record, he landed a number that dwarfs typical purses in his sport.
For fans who have followed Peričić’s path to the UFC, the punchline lands a little harder, because his career has never been the easy kind. Born in Semaphore, South Australia, to Croatian parents, he grew up in Adelaide chasing a future in Australian rules football and rugby union before a hand injury closed that door. He cycled through jobs in construction security and debt collection before mixed martial arts pulled him in, a path that traces back to his mother’s own training under Adelaide martial arts figure Sifu Jo Ip. He didn’t fully commit to the sport until his mid-twenties.
Even then, the road wasn’t smooth. In 2018 he faced a cancer scare serious enough that doctors considered amputating his arm, and he came through it. He picked up two amateur wins that same year and turned professional in 2019 with a first-round stoppage of Ricky Biechun.
Then the sport nearly slipped away from him again, as five separate bouts fell apart over the following years due to injuries, opponents pulling out, and pandemic disruptions. Unable to get matches lined up, he pivoted to professional kickboxing to stay competitive.
That detour led him to Auckland in 2022, where he joined City Kickboxing and lived out of a van parked near the gym, showering and cooking with the facility’s equipment while putting in sessions of up to six hours a day. The move paid off in more than conditioning.
At City Kickboxing he built a close relationship with UFC star Israel Adesanya, later serving as part of his camp ahead of a matchup with Alex Pereira.
Peričić’s return to MMA came in 2024 with a submission win over Kelvin Fitial, followed by a setback against Randall Rayment in a bid for the HEX heavyweight title. He answered that loss with back-to-back first-round stoppages before signing with the UFC in August 2025.
His promotional debut against Elisha Ellison ended in a knockout inside two minutes, earning him a Performance of the Night bonus worth $50,000. He followed that with a stoppage win over Louie Sutherland, then a second-round knockout of Shamil Gaziev that came with a $100,000 FOTN bonus and pushed him into the heavyweight top fifteen.
Given that trajectory, a mid-career leap to full-time fishing seems unlikely no matter how the math on one tuna shakes out.
