Amir Sadollah

Amir Ali Sadollah (Persian: امیرعلی ﺳﻌدالله, born August 27, 1980) is a retired American mixed martial artist best known for his tenure with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), having fought in the Middleweight and Welterweight divisions, and was the winner of Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter 7. He has fought exclusively within the confines of the UFC Octagon since the beginning of his mixed martial arts career, making him one of the few fighters to have done so.

Amir Sadollah was born in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in Richmond, Virginia. He is of Iranian descent through his father, and of Irish descent through his mother. Following his graduation from John Randolph Tucker High School he attended J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Sadollah began training in mixed martial arts during college 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 trained at Combat Sports Center in Richmond, VA. Amir trained under Brian Crenshaw, Fred Corritone and Dwayne "Diesel" Shelton. Dwayne helped fine tune Amir's skills and put together his highlight reel for the application for "The Ultimate Fighter 7".

Sadollah attained an undefeated 4-0 (MMA), 3-0 (Muay Thai) amateur record during his time with Combat Sports Center and its sister promotion, Combat Sports Challenge prior to going on to the Ultimate Fighter Reality television show, first making it into the "house" and then going on to defeat four opponents to win Season 7 and a three-fight UFC contract, which, due to his outstanding performance, has been extended. Other notable professional fighters from Combat Sports Center that trained with Amir include Dwayne "Diesel" Shelton, Anthony Morrison, WEC veteran and 145 pound Ring of Combat Champion, and international Kickboxing star Francois "Bang Bang" Ambang, who came to CSC from Cameroon to join the fight team.

Sadollah's amateur record of 4–0 included a decision win, a knockout and two submissions. Sadollah was one of the 32 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.

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

Sadollah came on to the show with no professional record in MMA, and went on to win the competition. Sadollah defeated Steve Byrnes by tapout due to an armbar to win the elimination bout and get into the house.

Sadollah was the second pick for Team Forrest and fourth overall. His first preliminary fight was against Team Rampage's Gerald Harris. Sadollah defeated Harris via TKO due to strikes. Sadollah's quarter-final match was against fellow Team Forrest member and friend, Matt Brown. After a close back and forth fight, Sadollah eventually defeated Brown via tapout due to a triangle choke.