Coming off of two straight losses Gerald Meerschaert has his sight set on a clear victory in his upcoming bout.
Gerald Meerschaert Predicts UFC on ESPN 22 Fight
‘GM3’ last fought in September of last year when he was knocked out just 17-seconds into his battle against rising contender Khamzat Chimaev. Looking back on that performance, it could be tough to take something away from a loss like that, however, Meerschaert was very detailed in what he could have done better.
“I mean there’s a lot of things I could have done differently,” Meerschaert explained to James Lynch for MMASucka.com. “I definitely didn’t have a good quote-unquote training camp, as far as time to prepare and all that stuff, with the supposed fight before, then I wasn’t going to fight for a while. A lot of it has to do with, I didn’t take the appropriate time after the fight before that, but you know, woulda coulda shoulda. I accepted the fight, so it’s pretty much all on me and just the gameplan was to make space and let him fall into something, it’s really hard to do in a 25-foot cage. And really I’m better going forward, so when he was coming in so aggressive I should have been like screw it, let’s lock up and grapple because I’m fine with anyone taking me to the ground anyway and I know that’s supposed to be his thing, but I feel like I would have been comfortable there. Clearly would have had a better chance if I got put to sleep with one punch, but it is what it is.
Like I said before, I don’t deserve that fight right now and probably won’t for a while, but if I ever get the chance to get that one back, I’d love to. If not, oh well. I went out there, I tried it, a lot of people said no and I said yes.”
Gerald Meerschaert will step inside the Octagon just over seven months after that performance against Bartosz Fabiński at UFC on ESPN 22.
The 33-year-old has taken short notice fights on a number of occasions and he feels he is more than ready for this one due to the nature of the training camp.
“It’s probably the most notice I’ve had for a UFC fight. I think it was even before the holiday’s actually that I found out about it,” Gerald Meerschaert said. “Originally we were going to take it a little bit shorter notice, which I wasn’t too fond of, but I liked the match-up so much I was willing to do it. Then it turned out he couldn’t do it in that time frame, then they pushed it back to the date now. That gave me like eight months or something like that to get ready for it. So I had more than enough time. I was able to take time off to make sure everything healed up good. Brain was all good, got all the scans done, checked out, everything’s good to go. Get to ease my way back into training and I think that helped a lot. I’ll be 100% ready for this next one.”
Fabiński is 3-2 in his five Octagon appearances. Meerschaert has definitely done his homework on the Polish fighter.
“I feel like stylistically it definitely favors me. They say he’s a judo guy, seems to be more of a straight like European freestyle type wrestler — gets in on a double leg. To his credit, for his build, little bit shorter, stocky guy, he wrestles to make the most out of his physical attributes. He gets to the hips, he does a good job keeping his waist below your waist, getting the hands locked to lift, either on a double leg or a high crotch and finish out the back, kind of like DC [Daniel Cormier] does with a lot of guys. Seems to have pretty good pressure on top. Not super active, but active enough. He’s still gonna try and hit you a little bit, but he’s really just trying to smother. On the downside, he’s susceptible to submissions. His last couple, I think, I know his last one for sure, he lost by armbar and I would expect him to have worked a lot on that but I’m really really comfortable on the ground in any position, including off my back. Not that I wanna be there necessarily, but worst comes to worst his A1 favorite position is kinda being on top, in that guard position and I’ve got plenty of weapons from there. I feel like the match-up definitely favors me and I think I’ve really got the edge on the feet as well. I’ve actually been on the feet with some guys, Eryk Anders, Eric Spicely, stood up with Deron Winn for most of the fight, you know guys that like chucking bombs and that can hurt people and I stood in the pocket and boxed with em just fine, so that side of it should definitely be in my favor.”
If you had a magic eight ball when you were a child it would give you maybe a one or two-word answer. Well, the Roufusport product seems more of a crystal ball kind of guy, with an exact prediction for this upcoming fight.
“I know that guy is gonna come forward, he’s gonna lean very very heavily to his right, my left, which is a terrible idea against someone who throws really hard kicks and he’s gonna paw with that front hand,” Gerald Meerschaert explained. “After he listens to this, maybe he’ll try and duck and throw an overhand like you saw [Ian] Heinisch do and then he’s gonna go for my legs and most likely what’s gonna happen is I’m gonna down block on him, I’m gonna get the front headlock position, I’m gonna start tagging him in the face, he’s gonna take another bad shot to his knees, I’ll circle behind him and if I don’t TKO him, I’m gonna grab his neck.”
