Khamzat Chimaev one-punch KO’s Gerald Meerschaert in round one

The second series of UFC Apex events comes to an end with UFC Vegas 11 tonight, Saturday, September 19.

Headlining the card is an epic grudge match two years in the making between former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley and former interim UFC Welterweight Champion Colby Covington.

It’s too bad we couldn’t see these two fight two years ago back when they were both still champions, but it’s better late than never!

The feature fight tonight was a middleweight showdown between Khamzat Chimaev and Gerald Meerschaert.

Chimaev improved his record to 8-0 over the summer, going 2-0 with two finishes in just ten days back in July. Meerschaert was 31-13 coming into this fight, which is over five times the experience of Chimaev.

This was going to be the perfect test to see if Chimaev is ready for Demian Maia, considering Meerschaert’s a crafty black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but we didn’t even see it go to the ground.

In Chimaev’s first two fights with the UFC, we saw him absolutely maul both opponents. He has been talking about how good his striking is, but we didn’t know what to expect because we hadn’t seen it. That all changed tonight.

Chimaev didn’t immediately shoot once the fight started, he pressured Meerschaert, threw one front snap kick, and one straight right, and that was all it took. He stalked Meerschaert and threw the perfect punch, securing the knockout victory early in round one.

Official Result: Khamzat Chimaev def. Gerald Meerschaert via KO (punch) at :17 of round one.

Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

See Full Bio