Gerald Meerschaert Feels Disrespected By The UFC’s Double-Booking Of Khamzat Chimaev
If uber-prospect, Khamzat ‘Borz’ Chimaev gets past slick grappling ace, Gerald ‘GM3’ Meerschaert on September 19th. at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas – the promotion are set to roll forward with plans for the Swedish upstart to tackle another Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace, Demian Maia on ‘Fight Island’ in October.
Opposed at the possibility of this rarely seen double-booking attempt by the promotion, Roufusport mainstay, Meerschaert has spoken of how “disrespectful” it is for the organization to publicly announce plans for Chimaev’s fourth Octagon appearance – before he makes his third.
The owner of an eye-catching twenty-three separate submission successes – Wisconsin born mainstay, Meerschaert featured on the latest instalment of The Bash recently with Peter Carroll, and Niall McGrath – detailing how he feels almost slighted at the promotion’s plans for Chimaev – before they even see how he fares on September 19th.
“Yeah, I keep saying it every time someone asks me,” Meerschaert explained. “I find it disrespectful. I find it disrespectful that the promotion can just line this up and put it out there in public. And I think it’s disrespectful that (Khamzat) Chimaev is like completely ok with like, ‘Ok, just line this up, I’ll beat him, I don’t got to cut a lot of weight and then I’ll go fight somebody else.“
Since his Octagon debut back in July on ‘Fight Island’ Chimaev has captivated fans both old and new, scoring two rather one-sided wins over John Phillips, and former Cage Warriors feature, Rhys McKee – just ten days apart. However, a pairing with Meerschaert will most definitely come as a leap in competition. For Meerschaert, the Milwaukee based middleweight staple can offer a significant grappling threat he believes.
“So far in the UFC, you’ve fought a lightweight who came up to welterweight (McKee) and didn’t look great,” Meerschaert told. “And then you fought a middleweight (Phillips) who had a rough weight cut and really isn’t that dangerous on the ground. He’s only dangerous if you stand and bang with him. And now you’re gonna fight a middleweight who’s gonna be bigger, stronger, and my techniques going to be way better in the grappling department. So, to think that you start setting up fights afterwards against a guy who. by the way, I’m tied with for the most submissions in the middleweight division, if it’s not disrespectful then I don’t know what is.” (H/T BJPENN.com)
From those aforenoted twenty-three stoppages via submissions, Meerschaert has scored eye-catching variations of chokes, including rear-naked, arm-triangle, triangle, anaconda, and guillotines. Hoping to rebound to winning ways following his opening-round knockout loss to former interim LFA middleweight best, Ian Heinisch – Meerschaert also looks to pose a significant threat to Chimaev who’s so far emerged majorly unscathed in his two Octagon appearances.
