Nursulton
Ruziboev wants to settle the score for Uzbekistan against
Gerald
Meerschaert after his
UFC on ESPN 54 victory on Saturday.
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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.”