It’s been a long road for Amir Sadollah since winning Season 7 of "The Ultimate Fighter." He’s suffered a ton of injuries and missed several fights. Tonight, you could see why he’s regarded as such a good prospect. In just his fourth pro fight, Sadollah dominated veteran Brad Blackburn to score a unanimous decision win, 30-27 on all three cards. Sadollah gets his third career win in front of the home crowd in the first televised fight at Ultimate Fight Night 20 on Spike.
"It was so cool [fighting at home]," said Sadollah. "It was the first time in my life that I had a crowd chanting my name. I was so glad I can fight here in Virginia. The crowd was unbelievable.."
Blackburn was hanging with Sadollah for the first four minutes of the fight. He was countering well but then Sadollah’s array of kicks began to take their toll. Sadollah rocked Blackburn with a beautiful combination, a straight left followed by a right uppercut. Blackburn was on wobbly legs. Sadollah almost ended the fight at the start of the third when he crushed Blackburn with a big knee. Oddly, both times Sadollah (3-1, 3-1 UFC) had Blackburn (15-9, 3-1 UFC) in real trouble, he chose to take the fight to the ground.
"I felt like if I saw an opportunity to take him down I would, but I wasn’t afraid to bang I out on my feet. He likes to control the pace of the fight and I was trying to find a balance of respecting his power and being able to go on the offensive."
He did plenty of damage on the ground but not enough to finish the fight.