Eryk Anders issues apology to Darren Stewart following “critical error” at UFC Vegas 21

UFC middleweight Eryk Anders issued an apology to Darren Stewart following the “critical error” he made in their fight at UFC Vegas 21.

Anders and Stewart met on the UFC Vegas 21 main card in a fight between two big middleweights. Although Stewart was the betting favorite heading into the fight, Anders looked like he was the better fighter as long as the fight lasted, as he was hurting Stewart with strikes up against the cage. It appeared as though referee Here Dean was close to stopping the fight as Anders rained down strikes on his hurt opponent, but then “Ya Boi” made the grave error of landing an illegal knee to a downed opponent. Stewart couldn’t continue and the fight was ruled a No Contest, with Dean ruling the knee was accidental.

While Anders was lucky not to be disqualified, the fact of the matter is he had the fight in the bag and, just like Petr Yan last week at UFC 259, one mistake cost him the fight. Taking to his social media following UFC Vegas 21, Anders apologized to Stewart for making the huge mistake of landing an illegal knee to a downed opponent.

1000 apologies to @Darren_mma. I know he wanted to keep going. I made a critical error in the heat of the moment and it cost us and the fans a barn burner.

— Eryk Anders (@erykanders) March 14, 2021

1000 apologies to @Darren_mma. I know he wanted to keep going. I made a critical error in the heat of the moment and it cost us and the fans a barn burner.

It was an unfortunate way to end what was shaping up to be a great fight. Although Anders had Stewart badly hurt, Stewart was still finding a way to survive and it would have been interesting to have seen how the fight played out if he was able to make it out of the first round. Hopefully, the UFC is able to run this fight back once both guys heal up.

Do you think Eryk Anders should have been disqualified or was the No Contest the right call in your mind?