Preview: UFC Vegas 105 ‘Emmett vs. Murphy’

Middleweights

Brad Tavares (20-10, 15-10 UFC) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (37-18, 12-10 UFC)

ODDS: Tavares (-258), Meerschaert (+210)

Some solid matchmaking pairs together two prolific UFC middleweights. Since making his UFC debut in 2010, Tavares has been one of the steadiest hands in the UFC, for better or for worse. Despite being at or near the top of a lot of the UFC’s middleweight leaderboards, Tavares has had a career low on highlights but also without many clear dips. Tavares is a consistent but unspectacular kickboxer whose secret sauce is some of the best takedown in UFC history, which forced most of his opponents to try—and fail—to outpace him for over a decade. It usually took a future contender or Top 10 to Top 15 middleweight to solve Tavares’ game until about 2023, when a knockout loss to Bruno Silva was the first sign that the Hawaiian has been starting to slip as he enters his late 30s. Tavares did at least get back in the win column against Chris Weidman—even if neither man looked particularly impressive—before two hard-fought losses to Gregory Rodrigues and Jun Yong Park. The Park fight was a sign that Tavares can still put some effective things together. However, Rodrigues and Park managed to find success with their wrestling, even if it did take the Korean until late in the fight to take things over. That’s also the concern against Meerschaert, who seems set to make a run at some of Tavares’ middleweight records.

It's an impressive bit of business given that Meerschaert had over 30 fights under his belt ahead of his UFC debut, but “GM3” has kept an active schedule inside the Octagon as the platonic ideal of a middleweight gatekeeper. A rugged grappler by trade, Meerschaert developed a credible enough striking game to round things out, making it a near-guarantee that he can drag opponents through hell given any length of time—even if some of the UFC’s better athletic talents can still run through him in short order. Even with his opponents’ recent success, Tavares’ takedown defense has still held up fairly well, which could make this a tricky fight for Meerschaert. With that said, the call is that Meerschaert can keep up the aggression enough to take this over, even if it’s a bit of a slog. The pick is Meerschaert via decision.

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Emmett vs. Murphy
Brito vs. Sabatini
Lee vs. Romious
Nzechukwu vs. Buday
Tavares vs. Meerschaert
Finney vs. Valentin
The Prelims