Light years from the hardscrabble lives of legendary boxers, Amir Sadollah’s story – a surgical technician fights as a hobby, finds out he’s really good, tries out for The Ultimate Fighter, winds up in the Ultimate Fighting Championship – is more the rule than the exception for professional mixed martial artists.
Sadollah made a surprise run through Gerald Harris, Matt Brown and C.B. Dollaway on TUF 7, but he has yet to make a much of an impression since then. The fighter had to withdraw from his first two post-TUF bouts and then suffered a controversial loss against Johny Hendricks at UFC 101.
“It sucked. It really sucked, man. It just sucked. But I try not to foil over endlessly. It’s not something I could change,” Sadollah said, regarding the referee’s decision to stop the fight at UFC 101. “After the loss, I took a break and spent time with family. I wanted to get a grip on life and just lick my wounds.”
“I even wrote a book, not published yet,” he joked.
But the fighter isn’t letting previous setbacks discourage him from moving forward. Sadollah will get his chance to show he’s really got during UFC 106 on Nov. 21, 2009, against newly re-signed welterweight Phil Baroni.
In the meantime, Sadollah has been splitting his time between Xtreme Couture and Warrior Training Center where he is working on improving his skills, from stand-up technique and some jiu jitsu to wrestling and conditioning. “I’ll do something really light in the morning, maybe a run, technical pad work, and technical gym exercises. I save more of the hard sparring session in the evening,” Sadollah said.
Whether or not Sadollah’s raw talent and skill will be able to beat the seasoned Baroni, Sadollah isn’t too worried or allowing the pressure of the TUF title get to him. “There are so many good talents in the UFC now. Everyone has a lot to prove,” he said. “I don’t look at my fights like just because I was on the show, I have to do well – I have to do well because that’s what I want to do.”
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