Issue 047
March 2009
A career in the sport of mixed martial arts has infinite potential to provide soaring highs, but is equally capable of delivering crushing lows for those involved.
Few fighters have experienced those dramatic extremes, but The Ultimate Fighter 7 winner, Amir Sadollah, did in 2008. No one other than a handful of insiders knew who the athletic amateur fighter was at the beginning of the year, but by the end the hard-working middleweight had achieved the incredible feat of going 4-0 on the TV series, scoring a variety of stoppage victories along the way.
As Sadollah explains, nothing of any value comes easily in this life, least of all the acquisition of sharpened fighting skills. “I put a lot of time and effort into it, I think that was one of the reasons I liked it so much, because it was a hard road. I’m not saying I’m there now! It’s not something which was natural to me, the only thing which comes natural for me is my appreciation of it. Everything else, I worked very hard for.”
This intense attitude to training impressed Dana White and earned Sadollah a coveted spot on The Ultimate Fighter reality television series. On arrival, the producers announced to the successful applicants that they would have to step in the cage the following day to gain entry into the fighting household. “When they told us, obviously it was a shock. I just remember for a split-second getting really scared and then right after that, I was like, ‘Okay, it’s not time to be scared … it’s just time to fight’.”
Sadollah slipped past Steve Byrnes, submitting him with an armlock to gain a place on Forrest Griffin’s team, a coach who would soon become both mentor and friend to the New York-born pugilist. “I took away a lot from Forrest and his coaches; I really liked their work ethic. I used to think I was a hard worker, but he’s definitely taken it to a new level with me.”
Emerging the winner of the competition with a submission win over the highly-touted grappler CB Dollaway, disaster struck as he prepared for the first contest of his freshly-inked UFC contract. Amir was struck down with a staph infection that put him out of action and in the hospital a week away from the fight.
“That was rough, that was shitty timing. The Friday before my fight, I woke up and I had a little red spot on my shin, it was kind of weird because the day before I wasn’t doing anything with my shins.” Over the weekend, the infection grew steadily worse, forcing Sadollah to seek hospital treatment. “They said ‘it’s definitely something that is getting worse, and we’re going to have to keep you here a night or two and treat you with antibiotics’. They ended up keeping me in for six days on antibiotics. It was not fun.”
After a year of extreme highs and lows, Sadollah is ready to push it hard in 2009, and is keen to keep racking up the wins in the UFC. “Even if my next opponent has just lost, I’ll treat him as a dangerous fighter. I’m going to be extremely vigilant and I’m training as hard as I can,” he says.
