'We are Pride brothers' - Eryk Anders owns illegal knee irony by posting Petr Yan meme

Eryk Anders poked fun at Petr Yan after he also struck his opponent with an illegal knee at last weekend's UFC Fight Night event.

The Russian fighter had his belt stripped and awarded to Aljamain Sterling after referee Mark Smith disqualified him. The official made the decision that Yan's illegal knee blow was intentional during the Bantamweight title fight at UFC 259.

A week later, Anders starred in a similar moment. He was standing on top of Darren Stewart when he decided to hit his opponent with the knee.

🥊 For a second successive week, there's yet another stoppage due to an illegal knee, which sees Eryk Anders and Darren Stewart declared a no decision 🤦‍♂️🤔 But should it have been a disqualification? #UFCVegas21pic.twitter.com/E8XBXROAxv

— BetVictor (@BetVictor) March 14, 2021

However, just like Sterling against Yan, Stewart was grounded. This made the knee attack illegal according to current UFC rules.

Anders posted a meme on his Twitter account, making fun of the similarity of his fight to what had happened the week prior at UFC 259.

"Petr Yan, chill.. we are pride rule brothers," wrote Anders.

@PetrYanUFC chill.. we are pride rule brothers pic.twitter.com/MMuMS7QW97

— Eryk Anders (@erykanders) March 15, 2021

Despite the association, the illegal knee fouls caused different outcomes. As Yan was disqualified and therefore lost the bout, Anders' offense made the fight end in a No Contest.

That was due to the fact that the knee strike in Anders vs. Stewart was ruled as an accidental foul by referee Herb Dean, while the one in Yan vs. Sterling was categorized as intentional.

@MarcRatnerUFC explains the Eryk Anders vs. Darren Stewart bout being ruled a No Contest at #UFCVegas21 due to the Illegal Knee strike and ending at (4:37) of Round 1. pic.twitter.com/BKCXXiKvLd

— MMAmundial_ (@MMAmundial_) March 14, 2021

Anders referred to the Pride Fighting Championship in the tweet because the rules in the now defunct Japanese fighting organization allowed kicks and knee strikes to grounded opponents.

How was the illegal knee rule in Pride?

Basically, kicks, knees, stomps, or any other type of attack to the head or body of a grounded opponent were legal according to Pride Fighting Championship rules.

Here's a video of the first UFC Heavyweight champion, Mark Coleman, finishing a fight in the Japanese promotion with a violent sequence of knee strikes.

However, in UFC, any of these strikes are categorized as illegal and can cause the fight to end. The referee can decide to deduct points or stop the bout completely.

Fighters like Wanderley Silva, who migrated from Pride to UFC after the Japanese fighting organization ceased operations, revealed difficulties adapting to the new rules.

Silva was quite fond of the possibility of hitting a grounded opponent and was open about his urge to throw "illegal knees" at his adversaries in the octagon.

In addition to the illegal knee from Anders at UFC Vegas 21, the event had another regrettable incident when Leon Edwards eye poked Belal Muhammad in the night's main event.