Eryk Anders on Fighting Lyoto Machida and Learning from Losses

When you go back and, you know, if you think about your times playing football, like your great times versus your great wins in fighting, like what is more satisfying to you? There's no drug, there's no anything that you could do to replicate the emotions and feelings after knocking a motherfucker out. And I'm not like talking about like getting on top and hitting them until the rep pulls you off. Like one punch, boom, he's, you know, jello on the ground. Like you might have killed that guy. There's no better feeling. And I've won like, when I played football, we weren't playing the national championship and had a pretty big play at the end of the game that kind of sealed it. But even that, the last game of my college career, doesn't equate to knocking out Jape on the tall the way I did. It just doesn't. It's one on one, it's you versus me. And I just did that to you. It's just, and I've, you know, done quite a few drugs. I've had quite a few big moments. Other side of the coin, there's no fucking lower field and then getting your ass whooped in front of, you know, not only the crowd, but the people on TV. And, you know, so, but I'll take it dude, I'll fucking run the risk of that versus the high you get after a knockout or a win. And, you know, any day. Do you remember the feeling of like your first loss where you're like, oh, geez, this is different? Yeah, because my first loss was to Machita. And I feel like I beat Machita. I just so happened to fight him in Brazil. And I think that he thinks that he lost because, you know, before they read the scorecards, his head's all low and he's, you know, kind of pounding and he's like, oh, winner by split decision and Machita. And all of a sudden, wow. But that was not a loss like, you know, that was like not like Tiongos Santos loss. It wasn't, you know, yeah. I think you could have won that fight. I remember that fight. You could have won that fight. I had his back, you know, you know, yeah, I was in that fight. But I kind of liked or told myself anyways, I kind of liked pushing myself. Like I like the challenge, you know, and, you know, two fights later, you know, he's fucking fighting for the championship. And to be honest, like I think that's kind of the fight that put me on the map, even though it was a loss. You know, I think the people liked like these two big motherfuckers just stood in the middle and just swung on each other to one couldn't anymore. You know, from the fans perspective, I think they really like that. Yeah, it was definitely a big fight. But it's not like a fight like a serious loss. Yeah. Roundtree was pretty devastating. Just because like there's some about that day, I was just like, dude, I don't want to fight. I do not want to fuck a fight. I'm going to do it anyways, but don't really want to be here right now. What do you think that is? I have no idea. Because I mean, all the preparation, all the training. There's some fights like when I made my debut, I had zero nerves. And as soon as my feet touched the canvas and I felt like how grippy it is, I was like, dude, he's dead. This motherfucker is out of here. I know he's going to. I know I'm finna win. But that roundtree fight in particular, I was I remember walking to the cage like and then someone puts a banana peel out here and I fucking slip. Can we do this tomorrow? Is that the only time you've ever felt like that? To that extreme. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think that was? I don't know. And I was really confident going into that fight because I didn't think that he could wrestle. I was watching film. I was like, dude, he's never like just flat. He's dropped a lot of people, but that's he just dropped them. He never like. Knocked them unconscious. I was like, all right, even if I do eat one, I'll fucking still be alive and be able to fight and shit. But I don't know. Dad just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I was like, fuck. That's what you were talking about earlier when you're talking about Khabib and Usman and these guys that like every single time they're mentally there. That's probably one of the hardest parts of the sport. Gotta be. And these other fights were like, I'm going to get in this dude's ass and it's going to be held for him. So I don't know what that is. If you're a sports psychologist. Yeah, they all say different shit. And you know, one guy say just be happy to be here. And I'm just like, that's preposterous. I would just know that I used to make fun of people. I'll do. He's just happy to be here. He's for sure. If any of us be or whatever, or don't worry about the outcome is like, no, dude, I am worried about the fucking outcome because that's half my money. And now you lose a fire. I could get cut. Yes, the outcome absolutely matters. Stop talking to me.