Gerald Meerschaert willing to do “whatever it takes” to get a rematch with Khamzat Chimaev

By Adam Martin - October 30, 2020

UFC middleweight Gerald Meerschaert says he will do “whatever it takes” in order to secure a rematch with top prospect Khamzat Chimaev.

Gerald-Meerschaert-Khamzat-Chimaev-UFC

Meerschart met Chimaev in early September in Las Vegas in the third fight of the young Swede’s UFC career. The promotion’s matchmakers wanted to give Chimaev a step up against a veteran and Meerschaert answered the call. However, the middleweight wasn’t happy that the UFC also booked Chimaev against Demian Maia, calling the move “disrespectful.” Not long after the comments, the Maia fight ended up falling through.

Ultimately, the Chimaev fight turned out to be a bad night for Meerschaert as he was knocked out just 17 seconds into the contest, and Chimaev used the KO win over Meerschart to earn a high-profile fight with Leon Edwards. Despite losing the fight in such devastating fashion, though, Meerschart isn’t convinced that he can’t beat Chimaev.

Speaking to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter, Meerschart says he’ll do “whatever it takes” to land the Chimaev rematch in order to prove he has what it takes to beat him.

“I genuinely don’t like that guy. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, just the way he carries himself. He doesn’t, I don’t know, there’s something that I don’t like. I don’t think he likes me either. And I think part of the reason I don’t like him is because he was acting like I said something disrespectful towards him. I don’t know if it’s because people were interpreting what I said to him incorrectly or something,” Meerschaert said.

“But the whole time I was like, I said he was good, I said I expected him to come forward and do all this other stuff. The only thing I said was that he was overlooking me and that he was going to face resistance and I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain on that, that’s 100 percent on me. I said something and I didn’t do it. And not only that, but me not liking the guy, that leaves a real bad taste in my mouth, and I’m going to do whatever it takes as far as stringing wins together to get back at that guy. If he wants to keep sitting up there and saying no one wants to fight me, eventually he’s going to run in that spot again, and I’ll be sitting there waiting for him.”

Would you like to see a rematch between Gerald Meerschaert and Khamzat Chimaev?