Nursulton Ruziboev wants to settle the score for Uzbekistan against Gerald Meerschaert after his UFC on ESPN 54 victory on Saturday.
Ruziboev defeated Sedriques Dumas via technical knockout to score his second consecutive first-round finish in the UFC. Ruziboev called out Meerschaert in his post-fight Octagon interview and later elaborated on it during a media scrum.
Ruziboev is one of only three Uzbek fighters in the UFC, along with Bogdan Guskov and Makhmud Muradov, who suffered a submission loss to Meerschaert in 2021. Ruziboev now wants to avenge his fellow countryman’s loss against “GM3.”
“There’s only three Uzbek fighters in the UFC and one of them was beaten by Gerald Meerschaert. So, I want to revenge that loss and I wanna show that Uzbek fighters are not weak,” Ruziboev said.
With Meerschaert coming off a submission victory against Bryan Barberena earlier this month, the turnaround time might be perfect for a clash between the two.
While he is at the nascent stage of his UFC journey, Ruziboev has amassed a ton of experience on the regional circuit in a career spanning over nearly a decade now. With 32 finishes in 34 wins, Ruziboev claims to be a household name in Central Asian MMA circles along with his own country.
“I fought a lot in MMA, I fought all over the continent,” Ruziboev said. “So you know all the fans from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, they all know me because they have seen my fights and they know my record. So that’s why a lot of those folks are now my fans and they follow me and it’s great to know that all of them know me and like what I do.”
Ruziboev’s sophomore UFC victory came with some controversy, as his opponent complained of an eye poke moments before the finish. Replay showed that while Ruziboev sent Dumas to the canvas with an uppercut, his fingers did brush his adversary’s eyes in the exchange. While Ruziboev admits that his fingers may have touched Dumas’ eyes, “Black” believes it wasn’t anything significant.
“As far as I can remember I got him with an uppercut first,” Ruziboev said. “Once I got him with an uppercut, he already went for his eye to show that his eye was hurting. And even as I was distancing myself away from it [him], maybe there was some sort of a slight thing but it wasn’t something that I noticed. Because I know I got him with the uppercut first and that’s exactly when he went for his eye.”
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