Eryk Anders returned from the first loss of his career with an impressive head kick knockout at UFC Lincoln, and discussed the finish post-fight.
Lincoln, NB — Middleweight standout Eryk Anders entered UFC Lincoln off the first loss of his career, against the biggest opponent of his career. Back in February, in the main event of UFC Belem, Anders faced Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida, and came up just short. The split decision loss certainly taught Anders some lessons, and at UFC Lincoln, he was focused on getting back in the win column.
It took a little bit for Anders to get going. “You want to get wins, you want to get finishes. I definitely lost that first round,” Anders said after the fight. “So coming out after that second round, I knew it was imperative to set the tone, establish dominance, make him break a little bit.”
Anders did more than break opponent Tim Williams in the end. “He hit the ground a few times, he got back up, so I think there at the end of that third round, I think he thought he’d be safe with that technical stand-up,” Anders recapped. “I just saw his head there, I waited for his knee to come off the ground, and the extra point was good.”
It was a huge head kick victory for Anders.
The former football player admitted that he “just felt a little flat,” at the start of the fight. But it’s something that he overcame, something that he’s used to. “Sometimes I start off slow. But it’s not about how you start, but how you finish.”
Anders called for a bonus back stage at UFC Lincoln, and later in the night, the UFC granted him just that, as he picked up one of the two Performance of the Night bonuses. He also called for a fight with Canada’s Elias Theodoreau at UFC 231 in December. Whether it happens remains to be seen, but it’s certainly feasible.
And no, that head kick, almost soccer-kick style, was not something Eryk Anders trained for. As Anders put it, “sometimes when you’re in a fight, you’re just flying by the seat of your pants. I can’t head kick my training partners. You break all your toys, you ain’t gonna have nothing to play with.”
Despite the issues at UFC Belem (a fight that could have gone Anders’ way), he didn’t feel any urge to change things up even when it looked like the fight against Tim Williams might go to the scorecards. After all, he feels it was clear he was up two rounds. Besides which, “no one wants to watch boring point fighting. The fans love to see knockouts, I love to deliver knockouts.”
Watch the full post-fight press scrum with Eryk Anders at UFC Lincoln above.
