Eryk Anders Discusses his ‘Cobra Kai’ Fight Scene against ‘Big MMA Fan’ William Zabka

Eryk Anders has opened a new chapter in his career and life. Anders (14-7, 1 NC; 6-7, 1 NC UFC) recently appeared on the fifth season of popular Netflix series ‘Cobra Kai’ as one of several mixed martial artists who attempt to foil William Zabka’s iconic character Johnny Lawrence. Without spoiling too much, let us say that the fictional clash between Lawrence and Anders’ character doesn’t go too well for the MMA fighter, who gets a taste of “White Lightning.” In a recent interview with our sister publication ComingSoon, Zabka praised the “tank” Anders, who was “kind and very easy” while shooting that scene. In turn, Anders complimented the veteran actor who, as it turns out, needed no primer on who his on-screen foe was.

“He's cool, man. He is Johnny Lawrence in real life, you know? The stuff that he says… he was just in character for the two weeks that we were there, filming the show. I find it kind of hard to like be like that all the time. I think that he's the perfect person. What you see in Johnny Lawrence is William Zabka in real life, and I thought that was cool. He's a big MMA fan, so he knew who I was. He’s into it, We really didn't talk about acting and stuff. He just kind of told me like, ‘Be natural, just exaggerate movements really because the camera has to catch that kind of thing.’ Other than that, we just talked about real life stuff.”

“Ya Boi” has other acting projects on the horizon, but first he is set to make his Octagon return against Kyle Daukaus at UFC Fight Night 216 on Dec. 3.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:26) Landing his role in Cobra Kai Season 5
(01:22) Mixing MMA and karate
(02:10) Working with William Zabka
(03:20) Shooting his scenes with Zabka
(04:35) The most difficult part of acting
(05:25) His upcoming movie projects
(05:55) Splitting his time between cinema and MMA
(06:25) Preparing for Daukaus
(06:55) Losing to Jun Yong Park
(07:34) Improving the judges’ work
(08:27) Picking Derek Brunson vs. Jack Hermansson
(09:00) Watching Cobra Kai with his kids
(10:16) Outro