Grappling specialists Gerald Meerschaert and Andre Petroski faced off on the early prelims of UFC 292 in a battle between a tenured veteran and a prospect.
Meerschaert has become one of the more prominent gatekeepers in the UFC middleweight division since his debut in 2016, over which time he has compiled a 10-8 UFC record. All ten of those wins have been by finish and one more would tie him with Anderson Silva for the most finishes in UFC middleweight history. This fight was the fifty-second fight in the career of ‘GM3’ and only the eleventh for Petroski, who trains out of Renzo Gracie Philly.
After a loss in the semifinals of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ season 29 to eventual tournament winner Bryan Battle, Petroski made the most of a UFC opportunity and is now 4-0 with three finishes in the promotion. With this win against Meerschaert, Andre could be facing a ranked opponent soon.
Both men came out southpaw and Petroski inched forward slowly, pushing Meerschaert back. They took some time to feel out the range; Petroski threw out a few overhands after a minute while Gerald did not open up at all initially. Andre was looping his punches somewhat, looking for one seminal blow. Some of his strikes connected but nothing as clean or damaging as he would have liked. Meerschaert was able to mostly roll with them to better absorb the impact as Petroski came forward recklessly. An eye poke paused the action with a minute left in the first round. With twenty-five seconds left the first takedown attempt came from Petroski, who got Meerschaert down with a single leg. GM3 locked up a loose inverted triangle attempt which did not threaten Andre but brought the dull round to an end without further incident.
Meerschaert opened up more with his awkward striking to start the second round and tagged Petroski a few times, though without much power. Andre responded with another single leg attempt but this time Gerald was wise to it and shrugged it off easily. Two minutes into the round Meerschaert caught a kick and tagged Petroski, putting him off-balance and almost getting him down, though the fence kept him up. A minute later Petroski responded with two solid right hooks, the biggest punches of the fight to that point.
Meerschaert defended another takedown soon after and landed a left hook to the body. The second round was mostly uneventful and slow-paced until with forty-five seconds left in the round one of Petroski’s big overhand lefts finally connected clean and dropped Meerschaert. Petroski jumped on top, looking for the finish, but Gerald wrestled up on the single leg and got to his feet. He shot a desperate takedown but got reversed; on the ground Andre rained down some ground strikes before the bell.
In the first twenty seconds of the round Meerschaert landed a double leg takedown into the guard of Petroski. Andre threw up a few triangles from his back but was unable to do anything with them. After about two minutes of low-output control from Meerschaert, Petroski was able to wrestle up and get to his feet, though he began to appear fatigued. GM3 chased the Philadelphian down and looking to overwhelm him with pressure and volume. Petroski looked uncomfortable but lateral movement let him avoid severe danger mostly.
With two minutes left Petroski shot a takedown; Meerschaert tried to defend with a guillotine but Andre extricated his head and settled on top in half-guard. Petroski tried for a guillotine of his own and used it to get the mount, but Meerschaert bridged and scrambled to his feet with thirty seconds left. The two swung at each other wildly as Petroski seemed exhausted but survived and fired back on sheer, unadulterated willpower as the fight went the distance.
The fight was close, with the last two rounds being clear – the second for Petroski and third for Meerschaert – which left a close, low-output first round as the apparent decider. Petroski seemed to have a slight output advantage in that round, as confirmed by UFC stats, and did land the takedown late although he was unable to do anything with it. When Bruce Buffer read the scorecards it was a split decision. Every judge had it 29-28, with two of them favoring Andre Petroski, who is still undefeated in the UFC.
Official Result: Andre Petroski def. Gerald Meerschaert by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
