Gerald Meerschaert etched his name in the UFC history books on Saturday by submitting Edmen Shahbazyan with a nasty arm-triangle choke to earn his 12th finish in the octagon.
Not only did the come-from-behind win net Meerschaert a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, his fight-ending submission also put him one spot ahead of UFC legend Anderson Silva for the most finishes in UFC middleweight history. It’s a notable accomplishment, no doubt, but because he’s still actively competing right now, Meerschaert admits he’s not sitting around waiting for the chance to polish a plaque for his wall at home.
Instead, Meerschaert insists he still has a lot of work left to do, which means the record he just set will only end up extended even further into the stratosphere with more UFC wins.
“It’s cool to say,” Meerschaert said after UFC Vegas 96. “I don’t think about it too much right now. It’s just kind of one fight at a time, and I wish I could give you more than that because it is a cool thing. Truthfully, if I sit here and stop and give myself a little pat on the back, like, that’s awesome — just to have my name in the same conversation or sentence as somebody like Anderson Silva or Demian Maia and guys like that, that’s great — but I got a lot of fight left in me, I’ve got a lot more fights to go.
“When I hang them up, that will be a cool thing to throw around, like, ‘I was cool back in the day. I got a T-top Firebird.’ It’s a cool thing to say for now, and then when I’m retired, it will be fun to tell my kids and watch them not care.”
Of course, Meerschaert didn’t break Silva’s record without facing some serious adversity.
Prior to his submission win, Meerschaert found himself in great danger after getting blasted with a shot that dropped him to the canvas and prompted Shabazyan to rain down punches on him in hopes for a finish. Yet, as he does, Meerschaert was able to gut through a difficult situation before staging an awe-inspiring comeback to snatch the fight-ending sequence.
In a perfect world, Meerschaert prefers a dominant win like the submission he used to beat Bryan Barberena in March, but he’ll never complain too much when his hand gets raised.
“You mean getting punched in the head and face a bunch of times? I’m trying not to do that, but you get into a fist fight, that’s kind of what happens.,” Meerschaert said with a laugh. “Edmen did a very good job on the feet. He had very good distance management. He had some good clean power shots down the middle. He caught me with a really good body shot that, just the way it landed, the action on it at the end it kind of landed on a weird spot.
“I’ve got a pretty tough stomach, like usually body shots don’t do anything, but the way and the time he caught me, that really sucked and that kind of started the little sequence of him beating me about the head and shoulders. But as long as I’m awake, I’ve got a chance to win. I pretty much blocked everything and had to weather the storm a little bit and found my way out.”
Meerschaert credited referee Mark Smith for giving him every opportunity to survive the onslaught before storming back to get the submission on Shahbazyan.
As much as he wishes he wouldn’t end up in those kinds of hairy situations in the first place, Meerschaert knows through plenty of experience that he has what it takes to absorb a whole lot of punishment and still storm back for the win.
“I know if I’m still awake, there’s a way for me to win,” Meerschaert said. “You’ve got to put me six feet under before I’m going to stop fighting. Whether it’s on the feet swinging back, if I’ve got a chance on the ground, my chances are as good as anybody on the mat.
“I know what it looked like because obviously it was happening to me, but all I was thinking after that body shot and when he was trying to get me out of there, I was like, ‘Oh, this is great, he’s going to tire himself out, it should make wrestling him a whole lot easier.’ Fortunately for me, it didn’t get stopped and it did [tire him out] because I blocked most of the shots. … Eventually, he gassed out and I got ahold of his neck.”
Between the new promotional record he set and the bonus he’s taking home, Meerschaert had a pretty successful night at UFC Vegas 96. It may not be the way he wanted to win, but Meerschaert acknowledges that durability and a never-say-die attitude are attributes that separate him from much of his competition.
“A clean victory like my last fight would be a much better example of that, but I fought a really tough guy,” Meerschaert said. “He’s been ranked before and he’s got some really good wins.
“I think if you’re going to go fight somebody, like, yeah, it’s scary to go fight somebody who’s a knockout artist or a guy that’s super strong or has endless cardio and all this stuff, but I think you should be really scared of a guy that’s not going to quit and that’s not going to go away just because you land a couple of shots.”
