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Eryk Anders recently voiced his support in favor of legalizing knees to a grounded opponent in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda. Ahead of his rematch against Darren Stewart at UFC 263, Eryk Anders weighed in on their first meeting, which was ruled a no contest due to an illegal knee landed by Anders.
When asked to opine on the controversial topic of knees to a grounded opponent, Eryk Anders told Andrew Whitelaw:
"Yeah, I think it should be fair. Because I don’t think there should be a position where your opponent….The person who’s being offensive has strikes taken off the table. The guy just be Mighty Mouse (Demetrious Johnson), one of the best to ever do it, you know, like that. Some play kind of like play that defensive game, they just sit there in the corner of the cage covering their heads. So it’s very difficult for the referee to stop the fight because you are punching their hands and not their actual face. Why does the offensive person get punished? And gets offense taken off the table because the other person doesn’t move or whatever the case may be."
Eryk Anders wants to impose his will like last time
Eryk Anders and Darren Stewart previously faced each other in a middleweight bout at UFC Vegas 21. After getting hurt early on, Anders dragged Stewart to the mat and connected with some good shots before Stewart got back to his feet.
With a minute to go in the first round, Eryk Anders again dropped Darren Stewart and looked to be going in for the finish on this occasion. As Stewart tried to survive the onslaught, Anders surprisingly landed an illegal knee, forcing referee Herb Dean to call a halt to the contest. With cageside doctors deeming Darren Stewart unfit to continue, the fight was officially called to a stop at 04:37 in the first round.
While the fight still looms large on his mind, Eryk Anders is not very concerned about the adjustments his rival might have made ahead of the rubber match. Planning to dominate Stewart, Eryk Anders further told Andrew Whitelaw:
"I feel the same way that I felt going into that fight, you know. I’m sure that he’ll make adjustments. I know that he is lifting hard, working on his conditioning, working on his skill set and what not. So I don’t know what he is gonna differently, I don’t care what he is gonna do differently. I’m just gonna go out there, build on what I have been working on from the first fight to this fight. You know, it’s a new fight, every fight has a life and history of its own so I’m just gonna go out there and impose my will like I did last time."
