Gerald Meerschaert engraved his name in the UFC history books on Saturday by sending Edmen Shahbazyan with a nasty arm-triangle choke to make his 12th surface in the octagon.
Not just did the come-from-behind win net Meerschaert a $50,000 Performance of the Night perk, his fight-ending submission likewise put him one area ahead of UFC legend Anderson Silva for the most surfaces in UFC middleweight history. It's a significant achievement, no doubt, however due to the fact that he's still actively contending today, Meerschaert confesses he's not relaxing waiting on the possibility to polish a plaque for his wall in the house.
Rather, Meerschaert insists he still has a great deal of work delegated do, which implies the record he simply set will just wind up extended even further into the stratosphere with more UFC wins.
“It's cool to state,” Meerschaert stated after UFC Vegas 96. “I do not consider it excessive today. It's simply type of one battle at a time, and I want I might offer you more than that due to the fact that it is a cool thing. Honestly, if I sit here and stop and offer myself a little pat on the back, like, that's amazing– simply to have my name in the exact same discussion or sentence as someone like Anderson Silva or Demian Maia and guys like that, that's terrific– however I got a great deal of battle left in me, I've got a lot more battles to go.
“When I hang them up, that will be a cool thing to toss around, like, ‘I was cool in the past. I got a T-top Firebird.' It's a cool thing to state in the meantime, and after that when I'm retired, it will be enjoyable to inform my kids and view them not care.”
Obviously, Meerschaert didn't break Silva's record without dealing with some severe hardship.
Prior to his submission win, Meerschaert discovered himself in excellent risk after getting blasted with a shot that dropped him to the canvas and triggered Shabazyan to drizzle down punches on him in expect a surface. As he does, Meerschaert was able to gut through a challenging circumstance before staging a breathtaking return to nab the fight-ending series.
In a best world, Meerschaert chooses a dominant win like the submission he utilized to beat Bryan Barberena in March, however he'll never ever grumble excessive when his hand gets raised.
“You imply getting typed the head and deal with a lot of times? I'm attempting not to do that, however you enter into a fist battle, that's sort of what happens.,” Meerschaert stated with a laugh. “Edmen did a great task on the feet. He had excellent range management. He had some excellent tidy power shots down the middle. He captured me with an actually great body shot that, simply the method it landed, the action on it at the end it type of arrived on an unusual area.
