UFC Vegas 21: Why Did Eryk Anders vs Darren Stewart End in No Contest Unlike Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan?

It was UFC 259 where we saw Petr Yan landing an illegal knee against Aljamain Sterling. The MMA world is still buzzing with the controversial ending to the title fight. And one week later we have another illegal knee in the fight between Eryk Anders and Darren Stewart.

Eryk Anders and Darren Stewart took on each other in a middleweight bout on the main card of UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs Muhammad. The fight was one of the most entertaining fights of the night.

It was fast-paced action for 4 and a half minutes until Eryk Anders decided to land a knee to Darren Stewart. Unfortunately, Stewart had one knee on the ground and therefore he was a “Grounded Opponent”.

The fight was stopped after Anders’ illegal knee and the ringside doctors got into the octagon to check in on Stewart. Though Stewart wanted to continue the doctor decided to call it off as he believed Stewart was in no condition to compete further.

Petr Yan’s illegal knee against Aljamain Sterling

Before the illegal knee, Eryk Anders came very close to finish the fight as he had Darren Stweart hurt. Though Anders is not a wrestling wizard he kept the pressure on Stewart for the majority part of round 1 and tried to take him down.

For a brief moment of the period, both Stewart and Anders started exchanging haymakers, and Stewart was caught with some of the nasty shots Anders was throwing. Stewart was almost down and out. But, he kept fighting and survived the onslaught as Anders shoot for another takedown followed by the illegal knee.

The rules behind the No Contest rule in Eryk Anders vs Darren Stewart

The fight between Aljamin Sterling and Petr Yan ended up in a DQ win for Sterling. Petr Yan lost his UFC bantamweight title to Aljamain Sterling as a result. However, tonight it was not a DQ win for Darren Stewart.

Since the fight did not go more than 2 rounds and the knee from Eryk Anders was deemed unintentional, the fight ended up in a No Contest rather than a DQ win for Darren Stewart. Nevertheless, UFC needs to book this fight again as it was one of the most exciting fights of the night until the illegal knee.