Coming out of The Ultimate Fighter, Amir Sadollah had serious momentum. The scrappy, affable middleweight from Richmond, Va., earned his name with gritty finishes over more highly regarded fighters. It all combined to help land him a plum TV gig.
But with the beast having the nature that it does, after dropping down to welterweight, serious leg injuries twice sidelined Sadollah. When he finally came back, he went 2-1 before getting the business end of his business end handed to him by Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 114.
Now, written off by many, Sadollah again finds himself with something to prove.
It's a role he has excelled in before.
This Saturday at UFC 122, he faces Peter Sobotta, who is 0-2 in the Octagon and faces a must-win situation. It's a classic desperation fight—both guys really need a victory. Sadollah is the one who'll do it. Here's why.
Sobotta is a native of Germany, and thus should have plenty of crowd support at UFC 122, which is being held in Oberhausen, Germany. His inclusion on this card certainly has more than a little to do with that familiarity.
If Sobotta can trade hands or flash his jiu-jitsu early, he could work the crowd into a lather—great news for a talented young man who has admitted to feeling rattled under the bright lights.
That's why Sadollah has to grind. He need not answer the siren song of the leather.
He could work from the clinch and soften Sobotta with his muay thai. Then, as he did in his reality show upsets over Matt Brown and C.B. Dollaway, sink in the choke for the tap-out.
Amir faces a long road to welterweight contenderville. But you have to start somewhere, and Peter Sobotta is as good a reentry point as any.
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