Anthony Perosh

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Anthony Perosh is a retired Australian mixed martial artist from Sydney. He competed mainly in the UFC’s light heavyweight division, and also fought at heavyweight. He’s 6'3" tall, around 265 pounds, with a 75-inch reach. Perosh holds a 5th‑degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlos Machado, plus black belts in Kempo Karate and Muay Thai. His nickname is "The Hippo."

Born to Croatian-immigrant parents, Perosh began martial arts in 1995 while working in security to pay for college. He started with Kempo Karate and Muay Thai before discovering Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In 1997 he moved to Dallas to train with Carlos Machado and earned his Machado BJJ black belt in 2003. He began MMA the same year, winning his first three fights by submission.

Perosh joined the UFC after going 5–1. He lost his first two UFC fights—against Jeff Monson at UFC 61 and Christian Wellisch at UFC 66—and was released. He fought in other promotions before returning to the UFC in 2010 on two days’ notice to face Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 110; he lost but earned a four‑fight UFC contract. He won his light heavyweight UFC debut at UFC 127 against Tom Blackledge by rear‑naked choke.

Over the next years, Perosh earned wins over Cyrille Diabaté (2011) and Nick Penner (2012), and scored a dramatic 10‑second knockout of Vinny Magalhães at UFC 163 in 2013, earning Knockout of the Night. He then lost to Ryan Bader in 2013, and later defeated Guto Inocente (2014) before a series of losses to Sean O’Connell (2015) and Gian Villante (2015). Perosh retired in January 2016.

After retiring, he and Elvis Sinosic ran Sinosic Perosh Martial Arts in Sydney. He later started Team Perosh Mixed Martial Arts, a Sydney gym teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, kickboxing, MMA, and wrestling. His nickname, “The Hippo,” comes from his pressure-heavy top game in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.