“It’s great, Madison Square Garden is one of the most prestigious venues in the world,” Anders said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “They could have offered me King Kong, if it’s in MSG I’m there, I’ve been wanting to fight there… He fought Bruno Silva last, we are both coming off wins, if he fights Bruno why can’t he fight me? He’s had a legendary career, but with his leg and age, I don’t want to sound like a prick, but with his leg and age, he’s not championship caliber. It doesn’t make sense for him to fight top-15 guys, so from a fan perspective, two guys who are going to move forward and punch each other.”
Although Anders is getting a big fight against Weidman which could propel him into a ranked opponent. He doesn’t care as he says he’s no longer chasing the belt or the rankings anymore. Instead, Anders just wants to be in fun fights.
“I’m not chasing the belt anymore, I’m not chasing the top-15,” Eryk Anders said. “I’m chasing entertaining fights and I think I can get what I need at home with my kids, my oldest son lives with me now. It’s hard to be in two places at once. That was the main catalyst and I can bring guys in.”
On the day he debuted in the UFC, Bo Nickal was already one of the most accomplished wrestlers to set foot in the octagon as a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion and he’d like to see more of those athletes join him in the sport.
Ahead of his return at UFC 309, Nickal revealed his hopes that more high-level wrestlers start making the transition to fighting like 2020 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, who became a primary training partner for Jon Jones as he prepared for his fight against Stipe Miocic on Saturday.
“I would love that,” Nickal said during UFC 309 media day. “I would love to see as many high-level wrestlers as possible transition over to MMA. I think that the last decade or so, we really haven’t had the best collegiate wrestlers move into MMA. You have guys that have had success but we haven’t had the best of the best.
Chandler (23-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC) rematches Oliveira (34-10 MMA, 22-10 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 309 (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Hulu/FX, ESPN+) co-main event at Madison Square Garden in New York. Chandler will look to avenge his 2021 loss to Oliveira, in which he was able to badly hurt the Brazilian in Round 1 but was knocked out just 19 seconds into Round 2. Speaking on the “Believe You Me” podcast with Michael Bisping, Smith said Chandler’s tendency to brawl and entertain is who he is as a fighter.
“Not a chance,” Smith said of Chandler fighting smarter. “I think he’ll think he’s going to do that. When he fought Dustin Poirier, I was right behind Joe Rogan, and I was like, ‘This is going to be an amazing fight. He’s going to fight smart.’ He tried. I was close enough where I could see him, I could hear his coaches, I could hear the corner work through the broadcast.
“Listening to the things with Din (Thomas), and you can see he was having this internal battle where he knows that he was just really successful with the wrestling, but this devil on the other shoulder is like, ‘Just go for broke,’ and he can’t help it. I used to think he was trying to be exciting, and he’s not. It’s just who he is in here (his heart), and he can’t help it.”
Since coming over from Bellator, Chandler’s approach has resulted in four bonuses in five UFC appearances. His all-out war with Justin Gaethje at UFC 268 earned him Fight of the Year for 2021.
