Gerald Meerschaert Revels in Record-Breaking Win after Overcoming Adversity | UFC on ESPN 62

well congratulations how are you feeling I feel pretty good how are you guys doing they pretty good we saw your fight it was pretty good yeah you know I've uh had cleaner performances but well what fun is it if you don't get punched in the face a few times right so how did you anticipate this fight going based off how I you know how different was it than how it went in there were you anticipating it being as difficult as it was you mean getting punched in the face and head a bunch of times yeah I was trying not to do that but you know you get into a fist fight that's kind of what happens uh Edmond did a great job on the feed he had very good uh 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 uh the action on it at the end it kind of landed in a weird spot and it just you know I got pretty tough stomach like usually body shots don't do anything but just the way and the time he caught me that really sucked and that kind of started the uh the little sequence of him just like beating me about The Head and Shoulders but as as long as I'm awake I got a chance to win and I pretty much blocked everything and uh you know just had to weather the storm a little bit and found my way out how how do you weather that storm because I know none of us know what that feels like thank god um but you can find out really easily if any of you are interested in this I don't recommend it but yeah thank you um just like is it do you have to put yourself in a different place or do you what do you do to kind of stay motivated and yeah no I just I I know know if I'm still awake there's a way for me to win you know what I mean you got to put me six feet under before I'm going to stop fighting um you know whether it's on the feet swinging back if I got a chance on the ground you my chances are as good as anybody's on the mat and uh 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 you know get me out of there I was like oh this is great he's going to Tire himself out should make wrestling him a whole lot easier and uh fortunately for me it didn't get get stopped and it did cuzz you know I blocked most of the shots there's a couple times I rolled uh backwards because I figured he was going to let me up which probably would have been the smart move but he just kept going to town and thought he could get a quick finish and get out of there but you know I was rolling with everything every time Mark Smith said to move I moved and uh you know I took most of the shots on the arms except for this nice little dot on my forehead I got and you know eventually he gassed out and I got a hold of his neck how awkward is it when you get back on the airplane and your face is all messed up and you've see these other passengers they freak out I mean I'm not a model to begin with so I'm not sure what anyone's expecting I usually is it this isn't too bad I mean I've had much much worse so we'll see how it looks tomorrow and I know this is a silly question because we know you nobody wants to go in there get get beat up like you said but is there any part of you that's like hey I was able to withstand this I'm proud of myself look what I could do look what I could overcome oh yeah absolutely I mean a clean Victory like my last fight would be a much better example than of that but like I fought a really tough guy and he's been ranked before and he's got some really good wins and uh you know I think if you're going to go fight somebody like yeah it's scary to fight a guy who's a knockout artist or a guy that's like super strong or has endless cardio and all this stuff but uh 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 shots and why Paul Craig uh you know I've had teammates suggested I've seen that thrown around uh online a bunch of times and stylistically it seems like a fun matchup and uh I don't think he's got anything on the books right now and you know he's another guy that's been ranked before and I think it'd be another great way to test myself in two really good submission artists going at it and you know win-win situation when would you like to have that fight it what ideal turnaround time for you uh if I could get on that December 14th card in Tampa that'd be amazing thank you J uh so I think anyone that's been a fan of the sport for a while knows a lot of the things that you've done in the Octagon but what is it mean to actually have the you know the most finishes in middleweight and kind of have a statistic that really represents what you've done in your career uh it's cool to say you know what I mean I don't think about it too much right now it's just kind of one fight at a time and uh I wish I could give you more than that because you know it is a cool thing like truthfully if I sit here and like 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 you know somebody like Anderson Silva or Damen mayia and guys like that that's great but uh I got a lot of fight left in me I got a lot more fights to go and when I hang him up that'll be a cool thing you know throw around and be like ah I was cool back in the day you know I got a teacher ttop Firebird I used to be the All Star no I'm just kidding but yeah it's it's a cool thing to say for now and then when I'm retired it'll be fun to tell my kids and watch them not care and being a veteran of the game uh what what would you say to someone like edman shabazi who's still only you know 25 26 but is going to continue to go through some of these mental you know lapses of these setbacks yeah I mean just keep at it he's a really tough talented kid uh you know that it was a winnable fight for both of us you know what I mean like that was some really good matchmaking obviously there's pretty clear pass to victory for both of us but uh my advice to him or to anybody who's coming up and like look if you look at my record obviously I've got a few losses you know what I'm saying but as long as you're improving every time and your skills are getting better no matter if you win or lose you have a chance to become a better fighter and a better person uh and until your body can't take it or if you don't want to do it mentally as long as you're improving I say keep at it and was this something that you learned from experience like was there ever a point early in your career where you had a bad loss and you're like you know what I'm done with this man I tell you not even bad losses but like you know people know I had a lot of fights coming in but there was like a period of time in my life before I got in the UFC like I was really considering whether or not I could keep doing this you know what I mean I had I think just about 30 fights or over 30 fights I was about to turn 30 you know what I mean you got 20 plus fights and you're not getting the call no local guys want to fight you you know I was like barely getting by being like a warehouse manager so I was you know working split shifts training full-time doing strength conditioning like uh I was probably having like 50 60 hour work weeks if you put everything together and you know barely scraping by and it was one of those things were like I know I could hang i' train with guys that were UFC Champions were world champions and other organizations guys that were you know incredible wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu pedigrees and all this kind of stuff and you know I just told myself if I'm still improving and I can hang with these guys I got to keep going and you know I even it's probably not the best idea mentally but I even went so far like I bought some books on trade and like was looking into taking classes because I was like I don't know how much longer I can do this before you know life passes Me by but luckily I held on and now I'm here thank you for your time congrats on the win another fantastic come from behind Victory that's just your brand like it's still shocking to see but it's fun to watch on that yeah this had a little bit of uh like made me think of uh Shane Carwin Brock Lesnar Brock takes a beating but when he goes for the submission he went exactly the same route why why why did you go that way it's all very flattering the way you're framing this just kid yeah uh I would have liked the clean taked down and getting them out of there but again you know he was doing really good on the feet he was keeping distance which made the shots a little bit harder there's uh some adjustments I could have made on the finish that probably would have made my life a little bit easier but you know would have could have should have and then uh the second round I started shooting a lot more uh he obviously tagged me with that good shot but that was going to be the recipe right just wear on you know I know he usually wins the first round just get through that first round if you can't get a hold of him and then start wearing on him and then we'll go from there and I could see him starting to get tired even before the body shot and then after that I knew I was like all I got to do is survive this and I know there's a way I can get on top and win and uh you know if you're not going to be exciting beating the guy up the entire time then you got to be exciting getting beat up and getting it back so here we are and you know some guys might have defended a a rear naked choke better or like a armar such but why that did you go for that like the you saw that opening like arm triangle like okay ah this is it like I know he's not going to expect this really going to catch him slipping and and and put him away or it was like a in the moment adjustment no it was a reaction thing yeah so I hit that uh I hit that high crotch and I finished off once I pinned him down I was like higher up like a half guard crossbody is type position um but I was driving my head up the idea being that my hips would carry up higher and that I could pass and either take mount he would try to roll get to his base and that would give me his back um but it was just really easy for me to pin his shoulder to the mat and I know if I can get my head to the floor and underneath your arm as long as you he had two choices he either keeps his arm there and rolls away from me right and then I'm probably going to get three4 mounter his back or he keeps his arm on the ground which he elected kind of elected to do and then I would take Mount and he like stopped halfway and I just we were so slippery too I just kept sliding up and I know once I get my arms locked around someone's neck like that it's a wrap and that was amazing to watch and just um for sure another highlight R A lot of the times uh the fighters you know go in on the Reps the the social media blah blah blah but can we give a shout out to someone who for sure gave you that opportunity that Fighting Chance and then call it sooner because we obviously saw how it would have been almost unjust for you to get that loss and not really be hurt if you're rolling with these shots and obviously he let you fight Mark gave you that opportunity to be like okay you're alert I see that yes absolutely and you know Mark's a great referee I've had him for a few fights now uh and he's not lying all the fights he always says all my fights are fight of the night and every time I have it it's if I have him or Herb Dean then like either I got to kill someone or I'm almost gonna die this is like the only two options with those guys uh but you know he said hey if I say move you move I did a good job moving he let me work um you know as I said we've worked together before he's familiar with uh my unorthodox way of gassing my opponents out so get the benefit on the doubt on that one and uh yeah luckily he gave me a fighting chance and like I said most of those shots I blocked um so everything was all good and you know got the right decision that's awesome man and last for me fans are going to tune in you know they know you're going to bring in you mentioned Maya and Silva before guys who have fought for the belt one of them of course one of the greatest of all time what does that mean still to you fighting for gold is that still on the on the to-do list yeah absolutely I mean that's always the end goal and you know anybody can say what they want about how far-fetched that is but you know there's plenty of guys that are getting ranked at 38 39 40 years old and I still got plenty of tread on the tires even with all my fights and you know everything I've put myself through like I said earlier this week I'm just Built Tough so you know if I'm going to out Outlast these guys and it just takes me a little bit longer so be it awesome man congrats on the win thank you well done sir