Eryk Anders is expecting a highly entertaining fight for the fans on Saturday night
To open up the UFC Vegas 21 main card, Anders is set to face Darren Stewart. In the lead-up to the fight, Anders, the former D-1 football star at Alabama, left home to go to Arizona and train at Fight Ready. For Anders, he says he needed a change in order to improve.
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“Man, I just need to grow, develop, and evolve,” Anders said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I really didn’t feel like I was getting that back home and needed some different training partners, a different outlook on the gameplan. The coaches have also been phenomenal and the strength and conditioning program out here is excellent. It will be a new Eryk Anders come March 13.”
After months of hard training and preparation for Stewart, Anders is eager to share the Octagon with the Brit. He knows both of them come to bring it and will look to trade heavy shots until one of them gets knocked out.
“The thing that intrigues me the most is he is a fighter. It doesn’t matter if he gets rocked, as long as he has air in his lungs he will be swinging heavy leather, as am I,” Anders explained. “The fans are in for a good fight, it is a super underrated fight. We will meet in the middle, swing leather and only one of us will be standing at the end.”
Although Anders is expecting that kind of fight, he knows there is a good chance Stewart shoots on him at some point.
Yet, Anders remains confident the new training camp and his new outlook on fighting will be the difference. It is also a crucial fight for him to prove to himself that leaving his family for a couple of months was worth it.
“Every win is super important. Half my pay is on the line and I need that. I have been away from the family, I haven’t seen them in two months,” Anders said. “This would be validation that everything I did and the sacrifices I made were the right ones. Anything less than a victory isn’t going to cut it.”
If Anders ends up getting his hand raised, the goal for him is to remain active this year. He isn’t opposed to short notice fights at light heavyweight, as well as possible fights at heavyweight. Regardless, of weight class, the goal for Anders is to rack up wins and money this year after just one fight in 2020.
“I just get in where I fit in. I am here to make this money, wherever they offer me a fight. I’ve only said no twice and it was due to injuries. I’ll even fight at heavyweight if the matchup is right,” Anders concluded.
Do you think Eryk Anders will beat Darren Stewart?