15 quick questions for Amir following his big win over Brad Blackburn in UFN 20.

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1. Did you have the same game plan going into this fight as you did Baroni?

Every fight and fighter is different ,but in general the game plan was similar. Both guys had dangerous hands, and I wanted to keep pressure on while trying to nullify any big shots.

2. What was different about Baroni and Blackburn?

Baroni wanted to kill me, and Blackburn is a gentleman, however still wanted to kill me.

3. There were a couple times that it looked like you could have put Blackburn away but you decided to take him down instead what was your thought process there?

Watching the fight now I see that he was more hurt than I thought at the time, but I am always trying to evolve my game and having an opportunity to take someone down and work some ground and pound was also important to me.

4. Did Blackburn ever have you hurt?

No, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt. Except for the punches. yes those hurt.

5. Was it more nerve racking fighting in front of a hometown crowd or did it pump you up more?

No, if anything I really enjoyed the experience. Walking out to the fight I really felt a palpable energy of support, and it was definitely great to be fighting there.

6. When you were on TUF7 everyone categorized you as a kick boxer, then you submitted nearly all of your opponents and they started saying you’re a submission fighter. Now that you have shown your striking skills against Baroni and Blackburn people are saying you are a Muay Thai guy now? How would you describe yourself?

Kind of a loose cannon. The police chief is always yelling at me for dangerous suspect pursuit car chases, having shootouts in public places, and the yellow pages missing after perp interrogations. But I play by my own rules, nobody else’s. Wait, is that Lethal Weapon?

7. Many people believe your fight against Hendricks was stopped early. What were your thoughts on that and how did that loss effect you?

Obviously it was a decision i didn’t agree with, but to put much more thought into it after that is counter productive in my eyes. I felt like I made a mistake, and whether the consequence was warranted or not is immaterial at this point. i just see it as a lesson learned, and want to use that to make myself as good as I can be.

8. There were a lot of critics and doubters talking about you after the Hendricks fight, now that you have bounced back convincingly against 2 very tough opponents, do you have anything to say to them?

What doubters? Did they say anything mean? I hate it when they say anything mean. Probably they were kidding.

9. Who would you like to fight next, or in the near future?

Anyone who is talented and a challenge for me. The great part about that is, in the UFC at 170, that will not be an issue.

10. A lot of fans that attended the live show are wondering what the name of the song you walked to was?

It was Odissea Mediterranea by Laera. I dig that song.

11. What TV shows are you watching these days?

Probably my favorites right now are “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, “30 Rock”, and I hate to admit this, but “Jersey Shore” has turned into one of my new favorite Quotable’s. That’s da situation.

12. What are the last 5 songs played on your iPod?

Some Euro techno mixes I like to do cardio to, probably some Tiger Army stuff, Raffi, and Beethoven. But not the Beethoven you’re thinking of, the death metal Beethoven.

13. Anything coming up for you on your time off?

I’m going to try to get back over to Holland to train, but other than that, probably just pursuing a career in a rock band.

14. How long before we you want to get back in the Octagon?

Well thats up tp the UFC but I hope be back this spring.

15. Anyone you would like to recognize before we wrap up?

Nope, absolutely no one comes to mind. At all. Wait, yeah actually…. no, no, no one at all.

ok heres the real answer to 15

I have such a great team of people behind me, my traininers for giving their all when they help me, Marco Van Den Broek, Mark Beecher, Cameron Diffley, Norm Turner, SuckerPunch, my entire family for their unconditional support, TapouT and Sprawl for sticking by me through thick and thin, Spike TV and Spike.com for letting the country see how great I am in front of a camera, FighterWarehouse, Hayabusa and finally TapouT Sports Nutrition for helping me get in the best shape I can be for a fight.

photography by PhotosByDash.com

Cross your fingers! If all goes well August 8th will be Amir’s long awaited return to the Octagon. After facing a run of bad luck since his win against CB Dollaway that crowned him The Ultimate Fighter for season seven and earning him the “six figure contract”, Amir looks to put the injuries and bad luck behind him as he faces the undefeated Johnny Hendricks (5-0).

While many fighters would focus solely on healing up, Amir has pushed himself to become a better fighter. Moving to a more natural weight of 170 pounds, Amir has been training with Forrest Griffin and Wanderlei Silva in Las Vegas and has recently returned from an intensive Muay Thai “vacation” in Holland. The fighter that won millions of fans around the world with his down to earth approachability and quirky sense of humor will return to show the world why he is The Ultimate Fighter.

We would like to recognize TAPOUT, and SPRAWL for taking the chance and supporting the rising stars in the SuckerPunch stable. Through supporting tomorrow’s stars sponsors like them truly help evolve this sport.

In “Blindside”, SuckerPunch shows you a side of the fighters’ lives you don’t normally see.
In this episode we watch Amir Sadollah throw down with Junior Assuncao in the Y101 studio as they test out the new UFC video game by THQ. Amir felt he had the upper hand in the game since he is actually in it… but Junior is not impressed.

SuckerPunch Entertainment would like to recognize TapouT, Sprawl, and Fight! for supporting the stars in the SuckerPunch stable. It’s sponsors like these that truly help evolve this sport.

So what is a blog without the occasional highly biased, under-researched, opinionated article? I’ll tell you what it is… boring. I have encountered quite a bit of speculation recently about MMA’s increasing acceptance into mainstream America and subsequent future. I could see a few possibilities.
Traveling to Europe, specifically the Netherlands, I saw what happens when you take up a sport that doesn’t seem to convince the mainstream that it is worthy of their time. Kickboxing in the Netherlands has a large following, and they produce a plethora of high level strikers. Yet, for a country that produces one of the highest percentages of world class fighters, it is not recognized nationally. Rather it is almost whispered about. Being a fighter can carry a bit of a stigma, as the masses make assumptions of a criminal disposition. So you have a sport that is at a high level, with a competitive people, and popular, but just under the surface of breaking out. The result is a wide variety of fight shows and promotions, multitudes of schools in every town (that are all good), underpaid fighters,

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This week I was thinking I would share a few things I learned fighting and training along the way myself. I would like to think that even if you’re not a fighter, you can apply most of this in some way. Even if you have to rearrange the words in the sentences to make entirely new sentences, technically, I will still take credit.

Never plan on your next workout being the hard one. Too many times I would hold back working as hard as I could, assuming that things were going to happen as planned. If all the guys you workout with swear up and down that they are coming back later in the day for a hard session, and you pull back thinking you’ll need to save your energy – don’t. I think when you’re at the gym and sweating, give it your all with the scenario at hand, who knows how the next workout is going to shape up, work hard for yourself when the opportunity is there.

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