A fighter set to compete at UFC Vegas 109 was in the midst of a difficult period in his career before hearing the answer to his woes on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Before attention turns to the middleweight title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 and the other bouts on offer at the promotion’s next pay-per-view, there remains one final piece of business to attend to at the Apex.
It’ll be middleweights setting the stage this Saturday for next weekend’s championship fight, with Anthony Hernandez and Roman Dolidze looking to advance their own title ambitions in the UFC Vegas 109 main event.
They won’t be the only 185-pounders in action, and one of the others once utilized a unique tool to boost his chances of ending a devastating losing skid.
Eryk Anders employed a hypnotist after hearing an ex-UFC opponent mention it to Joe Rogan
Saturday’s UFC Vegas 109 main card is set to start and end with middleweight action, as veteran Eryk Anders and UK prospect Christian Leroy Duncan are tasked with kicking off proceedings. Anders has had plenty of notable wins across his 18-fight UFC career, one of which brought an end to his longest losing skid and was aided by an eyebrow-raising approach behind the scenes.
A loss to Khalil Rountree Jr. in April 2019 left ‘Ya Boi’ on a dismal three-fight run of losses. He was unsure of what was going wrong and how he could fix things until he heard Rountree Jr. speaking on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.
“I just wasn’t there (against Rountree Jr.),” Anders told theScore. “It’s almost like going into a fight blind for me anyway because I like the mental preparation.
“The challenge has never been physical for me. (It’s about) showing up on fight night and fighting a full three rounds, full 15 minutes, instead of starting slow and picking it up in the last two rounds.
“After the (fight), Khalil went on the Joe Rogan podcast and I started listening to it,” Anders continued. “He kept mentioning ‘Dom the hypnotist’, so I wanted to see what it’s all about.
“(UFC middleweight) Julian Marquez was the guy who introduced (Rountree Jr.). He gave me Dom’s number, we linked up, I booked a flight and went out there. I stayed on Julian’s couch, trained, went and saw him.”
Anders went on to speak highly of the experience and correctly predicted that it had put him in good stead for his next attempt at returning to winning ways inside the Octagon.
“Before, for whatever reason, I’m not very big on the visualization part of the fighting,” Anders added. “I went and saw (the hypnotist).
“It’s not like he waves a watch in front of you and says, ‘You’re very sleepy.’ It wasn’t like that at all. We just picked a few topics each session and kind of went through it. I feel really good and I’m really anxious to get back in there.”
Whatever they did in the sessions evidently worked wonders for Anders at the time, as he returned with a career-best performance against Vinicius Moreira. Anders knocked Moreira out at UFC Minneapolis to end his rough three-fight losing skid in style.
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Eryk Anders plans to retire from MMA in 2025
While Anders got back on track by finishing Moreira and later made it consecutive wins by outpointing Gerald Meerschaert, he was unable to carry that momentum.
The former American football player has won just four of his nine fights since, dropping decisions to the likes of JunYong Park and Andre Muniz. But while Anders has not been finished on that run and is currently riding his first win streak since 2019, he is still set to hang up the gloves soon.
After returning to action against Christian Leroy Duncan at UFC Vegas 109 this Saturday, ‘Ya Boi’ will have just one fight remaining on his contract, and the 38-year-old does not intend on signing another.
Anders told MMA Junkie Radio ahead of his next fight that he hopes to retire at either Noche UFC on September 13 or the annual Madison Square Garden event in November, which is expected to be topped by Islam Makhachev’s welterweight title challenge against Jack Della Maddalena.