Gerald Meerschaert Has Finally Found His Groove

“I think just taking a step back, taking a bit of a break and not thinking about anything else, but looking inward,” Meerschaert said. “What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? Don’t worry about who I’m going to fight or any kind of standings or anything else; just focus on myself and just be the best fighter I can be, and it’s worked for me really well so far.”

The Wisconsin native will step into his 49th professional fight on Saturday night. Meerschaert believes he’s now comfortable with everything that comes with being in the UFC, such as going through the events of fight week and the atmosphere.

He finally feels like this is where he is supposed to be.  

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“For better or worse, I think sometimes I might not think enough of myself; I’m a realist and I try to prove that I can do something,” Meerschaert said. “Now I feel like I belong, I’m comfortable and I deserve to be here.”

Training camp was business as usual for the middleweight, with a slightly new addition. He spent some time at Fusion X-Cel in Florida to switch a few things up, and train with some bigger guys. It’s something that he plans on adding to his camps in the future.

This weekend he’ll look to keep his winning streak going against Krzysztof Jotko, who is coming off a win against Misha Cirkunov last October. The matchup against Jotko is something that excites Meerschaert because of the fireworks it could produce.

“I’m excited because he’s really going to throw down with me,” Meerschaert said. “I know he particularly wants to have a stand-up battle. Even though he’s got a lot of decision wins, to his credit he still has a pretty good work rate. It’s not like he’s necessarily just playing tag; he’ll at least try throw big punches and then move around, so I think it’s going to make for a really great fight.”

Jotko has earned 16 victories by decision and six by knockout, while Meerschaert has secured 26 victories by submission, six by knockout and only two by decision. Over the past three fights, Meerschaert believes he has been up in people’s face from the time the fight starts to the time it ends. It’s what he expects on Saturday night, although things don’t always go as planned.

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“I think I’m going to show a lot more of my hands and my standup, in general, in close quarters, but I always say that I want to get the knockout and then I end up choking somebody,” Meerschaert said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

“GM3” hasn’t really been one to worry about the rankings and having a number next to his name. That includes the number of fights that he’s accumulated up to this point. There’s no other way to get to that number, other than by simply competing.

Fighting constantly is what is normal for Meerschaert and that’s what he is going to keep on doing.

“I don’t really look too far ahead in the future; I want to keep the win streak going and we’ll go from there. If I stay healthy and keep making money for my family, I’m happy.”