“The gloves come off for Gerald Meerschaert 🫳,” the UFC wrote on X Saturday night, about 20 minutes after Julius Walker knocked him out in the second round at UFC Vegas 122.
That was the retirement. Meerschaert, 38, is done after 60 professional fights, and the loss to Walker was his fifth in a row, according to Bloody Elbow. The bout closed out the prelims on Paramount Plus. The UFC’s own post on the result was a juice box emoji and the words “RD2 knockout victory.” Rough way to get a sendoff, but the gloves on the canvas said enough.
The Economic Times put the phrase “Can’t fight forever” in its headline on the farewell. Bloody Elbow framed it more bluntly, writing that Meerschaert decided enough was enough.
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The resume is long and weird in the best way. Meerschaert, who goes by GM3, debuted as a pro in March 2007 after one month of training and lost his first fight to Jay Ellis by technical submission. He was a kid from Racine, Wisconsin, who played alto saxophone and studied music education because he wanted to teach band. Then he watched some fights on TV and changed plans.
He built a 25-8 record on the regional circuit, with stops in RFA, Titan FC and King of the Cage, before the UFC signed him in December 2016. Nearly 10 years later he leaves holding the record for most finishes in UFC middleweight history with 12. That number belongs to a guy who was always trying to end it, usually from his back with a choke.
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The flip side is in the Bloody Elbow piece: he only once strung together a win streak longer than two fights in the UFC. He fought anybody they put in front of him, including a young Khamzat Chimaev, and he was the kind of roster name a matchmaker could call when a card needed a real fight with a real finish on the table, win or lose.
Spinnin Backfist summed up the reaction on X: “Gerald Meerschaert puts em down. 60 total fights. Happy retirement GM3🫡”
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For Walker, it’s a second-round knockout over a guy with 60 fights on his ledger, which is a nice line to put on a resume. For Meerschaert, the last entry on a record that started in a Freestyle Combat Challenge cage in March 2007 is a Saturday night in Las Vegas in October 2026.
