LAS VEGAS – Gerald Meerschaert is still placing his goals at the highest echelon of the sport going into his 23rd octagon appearance Saturday at UFC on ESPN 65
Meerschaert (37-18 MMA, 12-10 UFC) has had mixed results in his more than eight-year run the promotion, as his record reflects. There's been high points and low points, but he has put together a notable career, and currently holds the middleweight record for finishes and submission wins going into his upcoming matchup with fellow veteran Brad Tavares at the UFC Apex (ESPN, ESPN+).
After losing his previous outing to debuting former ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder in October, Meerschaert is relishing the matchup with Tavares, who has followed a similar path to him.
"I think he's the only guy active right now at middleweight that's got more UFC fights than I do," Meerschaert told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Wednesday's UFC on ESPN 64 media day. "It's great to fight another guy that's been around. He's fought tough guys, he's been in tough fights. It's going to be a lot of fun to figure out solving that puzzle on Saturday, and I couldn't have more respect for my opponent."
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At 37, it might seem like the best performances of Meerschaert's career would be behind him. He disagrees, however, and thinks there's a lot of tread remaining on his tires going into 56th professional bout.
Meerschaert is realistic to what the challenges of a title run would look like at this stage, but said it would be against his moral code toward the sport to set the bar anything lower. If it doesn't happen for him, though, he intends to keep fighting, keep winning and keep putting his name highest in the UFC record books.
"It's a far, far way off but the belt is the goal of anybody in the UFC," Meerschaert said. "I'm a reasonable person and I understand that's very far off in the distance and first I've got to win a fight, then I've got win a couple fights in a row, and then think about a ranked opponent and all that stuff. Other than that, the submission record is cool, the finish record is cool.
"Brad's got the most fights at middleweight. I don't know how long he's going to stick around, but if I could get that record, I think that would be cool. Then see how close I can get to that overall submission record, too. Seeing how close I can get to that is another one for me."
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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie:
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