Surging middleweight Eryk Anders knows Lyoto Machida remains dangerous, but come Saturday, he’s “just the next guy.”
In just his third fight in the UFC, Alabama’s Eryk Anders finds himself in the main event of UFC Belem, opposite a Brazilian legend, in what is the biggest fight of his career to date. Yet despite his meteoric rise, Anders is prepared for the long haul. He took some time out ahead of his UFC Fight Night 125 main event preparation to talk to Cageside Press about the fight, the middleweight division, and how he’s prepared for the puzzle that is Lyoto Machida.
Just prior to UFC Fresno, where Anders improved his record to 10-0 with a unanimous decision win over Markus Perez, he told Cageside Press that he had a trip to Brazil planned following the bout. At the time, of course, no one knew that he’d be fighting in Belem just months later. Anders, however, still got to take that vacation, and even got some training in.
“It was awesome — I got to see a whole ‘nother part of the world I hadn’t seen before. Got a lot of good training in there too” he told us. While in the country, Anders worked with Pimpolho (Rodrigo Fajard), who “everybody seem to know all across Brazil when it comes to Jiu-jitsu.” In addition, ‘Ya Boi’ worked on his striking with Bellator’s Goiti Yamauchi.
“It was beautiful, Brazil is beautiful, I had a great time with my wife” he summed up the trip, saying he was “just happy for the experience.”
The next experience, and next trip to Brazil, of course, will be his main event middieweight tilt at UFC Belem against Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida. Machida needs no introduction; the former light heavyweight champion and middleweight title challenger is a legend of MMA. And while it may seem that Anders has ascended to a headlining slot against a legend quickly, he sees it as part of the process.
“It is happening a little bit faster than I thought it would,” he told us, “but at the same time, this is part of the goal, part of the process, part of the task, and definitely in the right direction that I want to go. Third fight, tenth fight, whatever, just glad to be on the fast track.”
His callout of Machida after UFC Fresno is what helped get him here. That, and solid performances in the octagon of course. So how did the decision to call out ‘The Dragon’ come about? “A little bit before the fight, I was just scrolling through the rankings, the schedule and whatnot” Anders said. “I saw that they were going to Belem, and I know he’s from Belem. I kind of just threw a dart, a shot in the dark. He answered the call, and signed the contract.”
“Sometimes you get what you ask for.”
It should be a lesson to other fights: ask and you might just receive. It all came together in the blink of an eye after that. “I think by the end of that next week, the contracts were signed, sealed, and delivered. It happened pretty quick.”
While Anders’ profile has skyrocketed over the past couple of months, for the middleweight, a former LFA champion, it’s business as usual. “Get up in the morning, go train, come home. Eat, sleep, and train, that’s pretty much all I do. I’m either at the house, or at the gym. My personal life hasn’t changed a bit.”
His focus is on the fight ahead. Yet Lyoto Machida has been a conundrum for many an opponent. What has Anders done to try and solve his unique style? Employ the one other fighter in the UFC whose style is such a puzzle: Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.
When we spoke, Anders had just returned from a stint with Wonderboy at Pitch Black MMA in South Carolina. “I worked with him for about a week, just to get the look, the feel” he explained. “I think he’s a little bit faster, a little more crisp than Lyoto Machida. Certainly younger. More explosive.” In the end, he got a very good look at what to expect from ‘The Dragon’ later this week. And he was “super happy that Stephen and Mr. T [Ray Thompson, Wonderboy’s father] opened their gym up to me and my coach. We’ve been training there a whole lot.”
The former football player sounds well-prepared for the bout. And as for Machida’s living legend status, it holds no special meaning for Anders. “To me not really” he said. “He’s just the next guy. The next opponent’s always the toughest opponent.” That said, “I do think that a dominant win, a stoppage, will potentially catapult me into that top 15, hopefully. And we’ll take it from there.”
It does help that Machida’s legacy is greater than his current ranking, 14th in the middleweight division per the UFC’s official standings. “Unfortunately he’s dropped his last few fights, so he’s sort of slid down the rankings a bit” Anders noted. “But don’t get it twisted, I think he’s still dangerous, I think he’s more than capable of beating a lot of guys.” Anders plans on going in and getting the job done, mind you, which “I’m more than capable of doing.”
Healthy and ready to go on February 3, he has his eye on the 185lb weight class. “I think it’s wide open right now. I think those top five guys are really really good, but a lot of these guys, they’re 38, 39, 40 years old.” Anders pointed out that “it’s an aging division, I think the UFC is trying to put some youth at the top of the division. I think it’s wide open.”
The only problem is, “the rest of the middleweight division is pretty much booked, especially those top 15 guys, so I’m anxious to see how the next few months go.”
Meanwhile, with a win on Saturday at UFC Belem, will he continue to call fighters out? While Anders didn’t have one particular fighter in mind when we spoke, “after the Machida fight, there’s a few middleweight fights that play out between now and then, so I’ll definitely have a name on the tip of my tongue after I get my hand raised in the octagon.”
“They granted my first wish,” he added, “maybe they’ll give me two more.”
Two more could put him right in title contention. “I’m not a soothsayer, I can’t tell the future,” he said of that possibility. “We’re taking it one fight at a time.” Mind you, “if that was to happen, that’d be great. But we’re prepared for the long haul if necessary.”
Eryk Anders faces Lyoto Machida in the main event of UFC Belem (UFC Fight Night 125) this Saturday, February 3 in Belem, Brazil. The main card airs on Fox Sports 1 (TSN 2 in Canada) starting at 10PM ET. Early prelims kick off on UFC Fight Pass at 7PM ET.
