UFC 213 took place Saturday night, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the main event (thanks to an illness suffered by women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes), middleweights Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker met for the interim 185lb title. On Fox Sports 1, meanwhile, longtime UFC middleweight Thiago Santos (14–5) faced Gerald Meerschaert (26–8).
Meerschaert had won both his fights in the UFC to date, and was on a seven fight winning streak overall. Could he overcome the durable Santos in their UFC 213 prelim bout?
Meerschaert was the the aggressor early, and shot for a takedown within the first minute. He was unable, however, to hold Santos down. Back on the feet, Santos began landing some heavy shots, and Meerschaert shot in out of desperation, only to wind up eating hammer fists.
At that point, Meerschaert was trying to buy time to recover, but Santos refused to abide, forcing him to stand back up. However, an eye poke stopped the action, giving Meerschaert the break he needed. Santos, meanwhile had a nasty gash on the side of the head.
With the action restarted, Santos tagged his opponent and followed up with a knee to the body. Meerschaert shot out of desperation again, but still was unable to keep the fight on the ground. Santos was far more successful on the feet in round one, but Meerschaert managed to hang in there.
Meerschaert worked for a takedown early in the second round, but once again, could not hold his opponent down. Each takedown attempt opened him up to more shots from above, and soon enough Santos was raining bombs as Meerschaert covered up. That was enough for the ref, who waved off the action.
Thiago Santos def. Gerald Meerschaert by TKO, Round 2, 2:04
