Former Alabama linebacker Eryk Anders discusses acting debut, MMA career

Eryk Anders will always be a legend in Tuscaloosa, playing linebacker for the Crimson Tide during the 2009 national championship season. He recorded 66 tackles but added 14.5 tackles for a loss, six sacks, and one interception. However, his life after football has been why Anders has been in the news recently.

Anders made his acting debut recently, starting in a Netflix series, Cobra Kai. In a recent, exclusive interview with LowKickMMA, Anders discussed the experience and what went into him acting for the show. He said with some movie productions moving down south, he has had the opportunity to act. Add in his experience with the MMA and his role for Cobra Kai was perfect.

“The South here is starting to be a big hotbed for movie production because the taxes and tax incentives are way better here than they are in California,” Anders said. “So they’re coming to Atlanta, they’re coming to Birmingham and they filmed a movie called Embattled with Stephen Dorff… He was the bad guy in the first Blade movie… The stunt coordinators came to the gym for that movie, because it was an MMA movie, and did some stuff there so we got to know the guys.

“Then Cobra Kai moved their production to Atlanta and that same stunt crew got on with Cobra Kai and they were like; ‘hey, we need this big Mexican-looking fella to go fight Johnny Lawrence.’ I was like all right and so I had to audition for the role and everything… I got the part… Took about two days to film my little portion of the it, I think it’s episode one or two of season five which comes out here on September 9th… It was quite the experience and hopefully I get to do it more.”

The film has not yet been released, with it coming out two weeks from Friday. Anders is hoping to build off the acting experience as he continues his post-football life. After going undrafted and then joining the Cleveland Browns, MMA was actually the first place Anders turned to.

Eryk Anders discusses MMA career

Anders has been in mixed martial arts for quite some time now but made his UFC debut. He started out well winning his first two fights but recently, has not had success. Between not making weight or losing in the octagon, it’s been rough going for the former Alabama linebacker.

However, Anders is scheduled to fight again in December, being on the card for UFC 216. He said to prepare for the fight, he has been keeping busy by working on his Jiu-Jitsu and grappling. Going up against Kyle Daukaus on Dec. 22, Anders is just wanting to “stay active” until then.

“My last fight was in May and man, I really don’t like a lot of off time so I figured in between fights I could do wrestling tournaments… I used to do them a lot before I got to the UFC and just wanted to stay active without getting beat up. I think Jiu-Jitsu and grappling is pretty safe, this grappling tournament there’s no leg attack which I think is the most common injury in some of these submission Jujitsu tournaments or Grappler tournaments.

“The heel hooks and leg locks and things like that, but there are none of those so I think it’s pretty safe. Then I’ll compete at worlds in a GI so you know just trying to stay busy stay active and kind of keep those reflexes.”

Anders will always have the memories of bringing a national championship back to Tuscaloosa, earning the first one under Nick Saban. However, since then, he has been doing well both behind the camera and in the octagon.