Fight Path: Football at Alabama helped shape Eryk Anders' budding MMA career

After Eryk Anders finished his college football career at Alabama with a national championship, and after a title game in which he led his team in tackles, his career took a winding path.

He signed a free-agent contract with the Cleveland Browns, and he then went on to explore opportunities in the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League. But for the 6-foot-2 linebacker, whose football playing weight was about 240 pounds, it wasn’t quite the same feeling.

“Eventually I said to myself, ‘I’m better than this, and I have more to offer than this, so if it’s not the NFL maybe I should look at doing something else,’” Anders told MMAjunkie.com. “I had wrestled a little bit, and I ran into (UFC fighter) Walt Harris, who helped get me started.”

That has turned into a standout amateur career that will soon transform Anders into a professional fighter. Down to a fighting weight of 185 pounds, the 26-year-old is 13-3 and will take part in his last amateur fight on Nov. 23. He will then turn professional and hopes to quickly advance in the sport he adopted as much for its individual satisfaction as its excitement.

He is part of a line of former football players, some from high levels, who have turned their attention to MMA. But in Anders’ case, he has both a broad view of the world (he lived in multiple countries as the son of a mother in the Air Force) and the commitment to reshaping his body for the new sport (gradually dropping his football weight for leaner strength).

When not doing logistical work on Army Apache helicopters, Anders is using the training commitment he gained from his father and the study skills he gained from Alabama football coach Nick Saban to prepare for his final amateur fight. His performance so far has made his pro debut highly anticipated.

“I hope to have my first pro fight by March,” he said. “Then I’m excited to go from there.”

Fierce in football

Anders was born in the Philippines, where his mother was stationed as part of her service with the Air Force. That started a youth during which he would live all over the world: the Philippines, Japan, New Mexico, Alabama, the Washington D.C. area and Texas.

One might assume his mother’s work made for a strict home, but Anders said it was more by choice than by force.

“She understood she was the one in the military and not the kids,” he said. “There was no high-and-tight (haircut), no ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir.’ My parents weren’t too rigid, and they were smart in how they raised us.”

Because one of his older brothers played football, Anders wanted to play too, and he was able to find it even overseas on military bases. He considers San Antonio to be his truest home, because it’s where he moved when he was a sophomore in high school and where football really took hold.

It didn’t take long for him to realize how serious the sport was in Texas.

“We had classes during the day, but third period was for football, and we would put on our pads and go out and have a practice,” he said. “Then we would have practice after school. Every day was pretty much a two-a-day.”

His recruiting increased as his senior season advanced, and he eventually chose to go to Alabama. By his junior season he played in all 14 games, and he became a breakout starter as a senior, when he logged 66 tackles (fourth on the team), 14.5 tackles for loss (tied for most) and six sacks (second).

It was especially meaningful for him when Alabama met Texas in the BCS championship game after the 2009 season when he was a senior. He was from Texas, and he showed his enthusiasm by piling up a team-high seven tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

Stories afterward called him an “unlikely star” of the game, and it was a satisfying way to end his football career. But when his dream opportunities didn’t come the next year, he decided he should change course.

Transition to MMA

Anders had done some wrestling in high school, so when he talked with Harris about the possibility of trying MMA, he was intrigued.

“MMA more so than wrestling is like the purest sport,” he said. “It’s one-on-one, and you can’t blame the quarterback for an interception or the running back for a fumble. You have to look at the person in the mirror, and that got me hooked.”

He took his first fight after two months of training, although he says now he wasn’t really ready but instead just hard-headed enough that his coaches relented and signed him up. In some ways, though, he had been preparing himself for the sport throughout his life with his worldly views and the commitment he learned from his family and coaches.

“(From Saban) I learned film study and how to prepare,” he said. “But in being one of the hardest workers in the gym, I got that from my father. From a young age, he told me I wouldn’t be the biggest, the strongest or the fastest, but I could control how hard I worked.”

His hard work has trimmed down his body from about 250 pounds when he was in training camp with the Browns to now walking around at about 215 pounds and cutting weight to 185 pounds for fighting. It’s another chance to perform on increasingly big stages, which he has certainly done before.

“It’s different (in fighting), because in football there can be 100,000 people but there are 10 other guys on defense and 11 guys on offense,” he said. “(In fighting) it’s just two, and everyone’s watching.”

Catching up

This past week, Josh Rettinghouse told us about his steep learning curve when he started MMA when he started training following a standout high school wrestling career. His pro fighting career took another step last weekend when he beat former Olympic bronze medalist Alexis Vila by unanimous decision at World Series of Fighting 6.

With his third straight win, Rettinghouse boosted his record to 10-2.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.