One fighter set to be in action at this weekend’s UFC 310 pay-per-view is close to hanging up the gloves.
Mixed martial arts’ leading promotion is set to stage its final numbered event of the year on Saturday night in Las Vegas, with a host of prominent names set to make the walk inside T-Mobile Arena.
That even includes on the early prelims, which will see a former champion in Chris Weidman making his return. The 40-year-old is set to do battle with Eryk Anders three weeks on from a bout of food poisoning forcing their matchup off the UFC 309 lineup on fight day.
Having quickly recovered, Anders’ sights are firmly back on Weidman as he looks to make it back-to-back wins in 2024. But even if he does close out the year on a streak, the former American football linebacker has no plans to make a run.
During an interview with Thomas Gerbasi for UFC.com, Anders reiterated his goals for the future and timeline for retirement. Having put a five-fight limit on the remainder of his career in June 2023, the 37-year-old stayed true to his word by branding this weekend’s assignment one of three left for him inside the cage.
“I’m only going to fight three more times,” he said. “This would be one of the three. And two more times after this. So I don’t think so. But it’s still a fun fight, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
During his UFC career, the former LFA champion has picked up wins over the likes of Markus Perez, Vinicius Moreira, Gerald Meerschaert, Darren Stewart, and Kyle Daukaus. He’s struggled to stay consistent, however, with his charge up the ladder being stalled in defeats to names like Lyoto Machida, Thiago Santos, Elias Theodorou, Khalil Rountree and Krzysztof Jotko.
With his aspirations of a push toward UFC gold evidently a thing of the past, Anders will now be focused on closing out his career in style, starting on Dec. 7 at the expense of Weidman.