Amir Sadollah (Persian: امیر ﺳﻌدالله) (born August 27, 1980) is an Iranian professional mixed martial artist. He was the winner of Spike TV‘s The Ultimate Fighter 7.

Early career

Sadollah was born in Brooklyn, New York but raised in Richmond, Virginia in an Iranian and Irish family. Following his graduation from J.R. Tucker High School he attended J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Amir began mixed martial arts as a way to stay in shape. He began to take the sport more seriously after working as a surgical technologist at VCU Healthsystems and seeing similarities in the personalities of surgeons and fighters.

Sadollah’s amateur record of 4–0 included a decision win, a knockout and two submissions. Sadollah was one of the 52 successful candidates out of 250 applicants at the October 2007, International Fight League draft in Chicago. He impressed Dana White and producers enough to earn a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada to compete on The Ultimate Fighter. Amir went on to win the tournament and the title of the Ultimate Fighter. He is currently a member of Throwdown Training Center together with friend and coach Forrest Griffin. Amir also spends a lot of time over in Holland training at Calmaro Gym together with his Dutch striking coach Marco van den Broek.

He holds a black belt in Sambo and a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Cameron Diffley.

The Ultimate Fighter

Sadollah came on to the show with no professional record in MMA. Sadollah earned a spot “in the house” after defeating Steve Byrnes by armlock. Amir got his spot in the house because of the win and became the second pick for Team Forrest. In the seventh episode, Amir went up against skilled wrestler Gerald Harris and won the fight by TKO in the second round. Amir went on to fight “The Immortal” Matt Brown in the quarterfinals. He defeated Brown by Triangle Choke in Round 2. Amir then moved onto the semi-finals where he was to face C.B. Dollaway. In the third round, Sadollah put Dollaway in an armbar and Dollaway immediately tapped. This meant that Amir would fight in the finale for a shot at becoming the next Ultimate Fighter. Sadollah’s original opponent for the finale was Jesse Taylor. However, Taylor was removed from the finale due to improper behavior in the days after the show finished taping. C.B. Dollaway defeated Tim Credeur in a match to decide who would replace Taylor in the finale and fight Amir.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

On the season finale of TUF 7, Amir earned a victory over C.B. Dollaway with an armbar in the first round, securing his title of The Ultimate Fighter and providing him with a six-figure UFC contract.

Sadollah’s second UFC fight was scheduled to be against Nick Catone at UFC 91. However, due to a leg infection, Sadollah withdrew from the match. A replacement for Sadollah could not be found so the match was scrubbed from the card. The match was rescheduled for February 7, 2009 at UFC Fight Night 17. On January 23, Sadollah was again forced to withdraw from the fight, this time due to a broken clavicle.

Sadollah made his post-Ultimate Fighter Debut at UFC 101 on August 8, 2009 in Philadelphia (at the Wachovia Center) against Johny Hendricks.^[8] In the opening seconds of the first round, Hendricks blocked a high head kick from Sadollah and countered with an uppercut knocking Sadollah to his knees. Hendricks continued to land punches until referee Dan Miragliotta pulled him off and ended the fight 29 seconds into the first round. Some have criticized Miragliotta for stopping the fight too early, as Sadollah seemed to be trying to get up, but Miragliotta defended his stoppage saying Sadollah was “out of it” and “still looked glassy eyed and asked me what happened.”

Sadollah defeated newly re-signed welterweight Phil Baroni at UFC 106. During the fight Sadollah showed a superior Muay Thai clinch and precision kicks.

Sadollah defeated Brad Blackburn on January 11, 2010, at UFC Fight Night 20 via unanimous decision. During the bout Sadollah utilized great head and body kicks along with knees in the clinch and a solid ground game.

Sadollah faced Korean judoka, Dong Hyun Kim, at UFC 114. Kim took down Sadollah in all three rounds, dominating Sadollah with superior Judo and Wrestling. Kim won the fight by unanimous decision with all three judges scoring it 30-27 for Kim.

Sadollah then faced Peter Sobotta at UFC 122. Amir would win the fight via unanimous decision.