With his second-round submission victory against Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC Vegas 96 on Saturday, Gerald Meerschaert now has the most finishes in middleweight history, overtaking the record once held by the great Anderson Silva.
‘GM3’ had to dig deep after finding himself in big trouble during the second stanza. Shahbazyan delivered an onslaught of strikes on the ground, targeting Meerschaerts head with fists and elbows. Continuing to move and protect himself, referee Mark Smith allowed the action to continue. Before long, the barrage of blows came to a halt as Shahbazyan appeared to gas himself out going for the finish.
Eventually, Shahbazyan allowed Meerschaert back to his feet which gave ‘GM3’ the opportunity to secure an easy takedown. Once he was on top, it was just a matter of time.
The Racine, Wisconsin native moved into 3/4 mount and locked in an arm triangle that forced Shahbazyan to tap out.
In addition to breaking Silva’s longstanding record, Meerschaert also kept his 100% finish rate intact under the UFC banner.
Gerald Meerschaert has a lot more fights ahead after record-breaking performance
Asked about his accomplishment during the post-fight press conference, ‘GM3’ admitted that being mentioned in the same sentence as someone like ‘The Spider’ is pretty cool, but he still has a lot more work to do inside the Octagon.
”It’s cool to say, I don’t think about it too much right now,” Meerschaert said. “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” (h/t Sportskeeda).
Meerschaert has submitted 29 of his opponents in 37 career victories with another six wins coming by way of knockout making him one of the most prolific finishers in all of MMA.
