Few squeeze more out of their natural ability than
Gerald
Meerschaert, a consummate underdog who has built a career on
upsetting the proverbial apple cart.
The 35-year-old middleweight will look to improve upon a 10-7
record in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship when he toes the line against
Dana White’s Contender Series graduate
Joseph
Pyfer as part of the
UFC 287 undercard on Saturday at the Kaseya Center in Miami.
Meerschaert has rattled off four wins across his past five outings.
He last competed at UFC on ESPN 41, where he submitted former
M-1
Global champion
Bruno Silva
with a guillotine choke in the third round of their Aug. 13
confrontation.
As Meerschaert moves ever closer to his forthcoming clash with
Pyfer at 185 pounds, here are five things you might not know about
him:
1. Some might consider him the Kenny G of prizefighting.
Meerschaert was born on Dec. 18, 1987 in Racine, Wisconsin—a city
of roughly 80,000 people situated on the shores of Lake Michigan,
some 80 miles north of Chicago. An accomplished saxophone player,
he pursued a career as a music teacher before turning to mixed
martial arts.
2. A notable wart mars his resume.
“GM3” made his professional MMA debut at the age of 20 when he
submitted
Fernando
Gomez with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their Jan.
13, 2007 pairing under the Freestyle Combat Challenge banner.
Meerschaert won eight of his first 10 bouts but did lose to the
notorious
Jay Ellis, he
of the 16-108 record.
3. Regional gold buoyed his case for a call-up.
Meerschaert captured the
Resurrection Fighting Alliance middleweight championship at RFA
45, where he subdued
Chase
Waldon with an arm-triangle choke in the first round of their
October 2016 encounter. Turns out, it was a steppingstone.
Meerschaert arrived in the UFC less than two months later.
4. He retains hired-gun status.
The 6-foot-1 Meerschaert has appeared in 18 different promotions
across his 50-fight career. In addition to the UFC, his clients
include the
Titan Fighting Championship,
King of
the Cage, Valor Fights, North American Fighting Championship
and Combat USA organizations. Despite all his travels, Meerschaert
has never fought outside of North America.
5. He chooses his friends wisely.
A longtime member of the
Roufusport academy, Meerschaert now operates out of the
Kill Cliff Fight Club in Deerfield Beach, Florida. There, he
trains under striking impresario Henri Hooft and three-time NCAA
national wrestling champion
Greg Jones.
Kamaru
Usman,
Michael
Chandler,
Robbie
Lawler and
Shavkat
Rakhmonov are among those who have called the camp home.