Eryk Anders shares his experiences in both football and MMA.

“Ya Boy” Eryk Anders, only two fights into his pro MMA career, has already been granted a fight against legend Lyoto Machida at UFC Belem on Feb. 3 in Brazil.

Anders jumped into the UFC Middleweight division on short notice in July, and cemented his place there with a first round KO of Rafael Natal. Then, at UFC Fresno earlier this month, he beat Markus Perez and called out Machida.

Anders was a starting linebacker for the Alabama Crimson Tide in college. Although football didn’t pan out for Anders, he has found a new home in MMA, and racked up over 20 amateur bouts before turning pro in August 2015.

On Monday’s, edition of The MMA Hour, Anders offered his unique perspective on the two sports. Without a doubt he says, football gave him a great athletic base for MMA.

“I enjoy and love MMA much more than I ever did football, but at the same time it’s also kind of part of the reason why I’m moving up so fast.”

Anders also weighed in on the comparative danger of competing in each sport.

“Football is way more dangerous than MMA. Even if you get knocked out in MMA, it’s just one time, then you get up, you take a couple of months off, let your body heal. In football, you may not get knocked out, but you’re constantly getting hit, getting hit, getting hit.

“You see guys at 30 years old, their career is done just because of all the hits, all the contact. Just look at the shelf life of the average NFL player, three to five years if you’re lucky; MMA guys, they can play for much longer as long as they’re not one of those guys who play with their hands down and just chuck for the fences and take it to give it.”

When Anders fights in February, it will be his fifth contest in under 11 months. He attributes the extremely high activity level to the relative comfort of MMA, and lack of emphasis placed on raw size and power when compared to football.

“I don’t have to lift all those weights and eat all that food, it’s kind of the opposite. When I was in college, my back always hurt, my knees always hurt from bearing all the weight and hits and whatnot, but now that I’m doing MMA, my body’s never felt better. I’m walking around at more of a natural weight, my diet’s much better and the way we train I can go forever if I wanted to.”

But the biggest delight for Anders is the purer expression of competition in MMA. In football he says, you have to rely on others. You can be the best player on the field and lose every game, or the worst player on the field and win a Super Bowl. But in MMA, he says, it’s just “me and my coach’s voice.”

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