Gerald Meerschaert VS Jacob Malkoun

Malkoun executed a gritty, grappling-heavy gameplan to grind out a unanimous decision victory over the dangerous submission specialist Meerschaert. Knowing the veteran's lethal ground game, Malkoun was careful in his takedown entries, using heavy top pressure and solid positional awareness to stifle Meerschaert's sweeps and submission attempts off his back. While Meerschaert constantly fished for guillotines and armbars, Malkoun maintained his base and scored with short ground-and-pound. Over the course of three rounds, Malkoun's superior wrestling, cage control, and strategic top game were the defining factors, earning him 29-28 scores from all three judges in a hard-fought battle.

This is a stark contrast in career trajectories: Jacob Malkoun has won two straight since returning from a nearly two-year layoff, most recently dominating Torrez Finney by a massive striking margin at UFC 325 in Sydney, while Gerald Meerschaert is on a four-fight losing streak that includes stoppages by Oleksiejczuk and Daukaus and a submission loss to de Ridder. Meerschaert remains one of the UFC middleweight division's all-time leaders in submission wins and carries genuine finishing danger whenever the fight reaches the mat, making this a test of whether Malkoun's active, high-output grappling game can keep a dangerous veteran from finding his moments.