First Things First

Gerald Meerschaert just collected his 10th submission win in the UFC. That gives him as many submissions at middleweight as ADCC world champions Demian Maia and Rodolfo Vieira…combined.

Because Meerschaert is so good at choking people unconscious we’re going to take a closer look at how he gets his wins so we can learn his tactics.

Gerald Meerschaert

My favorite people to watch in MMA are the ones who do things differently. The oddballs that shouldn’t get their slightly dysfunctional games to work, but do, and often get ridiculous highlight reel finishes out of it. Meerschart is a perfect example of that.

When you look at the unassuming middleweight you see a respectable journeyman’s record of 36-17. Then you take a second glance and notice 28 of those 36 wins are submissions and suddenly he commands closer study.

Meerschaert only has finish wins in the UFC. Of those 11 finishes 9 are chokes. The guy is a god damn boa constrictor.

On one hand he isn’t particularly fast. But that doesn’t mean he ever stops advancing. Meerschaert is constantly coming forward, sliding up your spine to get to your neck and finish you. Because he’s not so fast and everyone knows his plans we’re left to wonder, why can’t more people stop him?

Control, Movement, And Misdirection

The rear naked choke is the most effective submission in MMA and grappling. You have direct access to your opponent’s neck and you’re behind them, making you difficult to defend and counter.

At the same time stalling while defending back mount in MMA can be downright pretty simple. You can just hold on to the gloves and wait for the round to end. This puts a premium on good hand fighting in MMA. You will not reliably finish chokes in MMA with average hand fighting.

On the flip side, you don’t have to fight what isn’t there. Meerschaert does an exceptional job occupying his opponent’s attention and getting them to remove their hands from defense in the first place. Let’s take a look at how he gets it done.

We can take two important lessons from this. One, it’s easiest to get a submission in transition. Two, you can force someone to try to transition by initiating a pass, pin, or positional advancement. In this case, throwing them to the floor. Add in a few punches for an added distraction and the submission presents itself.

Meerschaert’s constant threat allowed him to seal the submission. You can’t take your hands away from your opponent’s neck once you get close to a choke. We can see a combination of two of the ideas presented above, submissions being easier in transition and never removing your hands from your opponent’s face, below.

Muradov did an admirable job trying to hand fight and hold out. Ultimately Meerschaert switching his grip and hiding the support arm behind Muradov’s back gave him the finish. Below we’ll see another example of how well Meerschaert hides his choke’s lock.

What we see here is minimal movement outside of advancing towards the choke. Meerschaert patiently pushes his hand across Stoltzfus’s face until he can grab Stoltzfus’s shoulder. The he locks his hands.

As soon as the choke is closed, Meerschaert hides the lock with this chin to keep it secured. Let’s end by looking at Meerschaert’s last fight.

Meerschaert The Magician

Gerald Meerschaert is a magician. I don’t mean that in some mystical sense, I mean it literally.

Meerschaert is a performer that misdirects his opponents’ attention so he can play tricks on them. He does everything he can to occupy his opponent’s hands so his hands can occupy the real estate by his opponent’s neck.

Meerschaert turns you so your chin moves, he pushes you around so your hands move away from your neck, and once he captures your attention, and his own position, he never gives it back. Over a long enough time scale this gives him the seconds and space he needs to squeeze you unconscious.

Meerschaert’s grappling game forces us to ask some important questions. What’s the point in hand fighting if you can get your opponent to move them on their own? And what can you do you to misdirect your opponent’s attention if not completely obscure your intentions?

This weekend Polaris is putting on an epic tournament. We’ll be here to break down that, and the future of the UFC, Tuesday.

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