Amir Sadollah is one of 16 middleweight fighters that fought their way into the house on Spike TV’s reality series “The Ultimate Fighter 7.”

Sadollah will take ocregister.com readers along for the ride as he battles for a six-figure contract with the UFC with his weekly blog.

TUF 7 airs Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on Spike TV, and Sadollah’s blog will post immediately following each episode.

EPISODE 3

Ahh the return to the familiar intro music, and montage of the cast. Every time I see an episode of this show it kind of blows me away. I mean, I was there and remember it vividly, but seeing yourself on TV never fails to trip me out.

Immediately, after the fights the first day, they put us all in vans and took us to the House. Walking in to the new house you, immediately, noticed an open floor plan, a lot of lighting everywhere, and a refrigerator and pantry stocked to brim with healthy food. I always wondered how astronomical the bill for feeding us alone was.

Well informed from watching other reality shows, I elected to find a good bedroom first, before checking out the entire house. I ended up grabbing a room with Riddle and Matt Brown.

It’s funny that something like team selections would really change any interaction with the other guys, but I’d have to admit there was a palpable difference in how we acted around each other after the team picks. The formal group shots took some time for the camera crews to set up, so before the teams were made we all waited in the kitchen of the gym. This was the last we were all joking together before the team picks refreshed the reality that we were here to fight each other, and would.

First impressions of the teams were that Team Rampage got most of the strong wrestlers, and Forrest picked the strikers and Jiu-Jitsu guys. Being second pick for Team Forrest was crazy, definitely a confidence booster.

Forrest’s training sessions were intense to say the least. Cameron and Beetcher are top notch, and as I mentioned in the last blog, good coaches and quick to pick up our styles. Gray Maynard taught some great practical MMA wrestling.

Just when we thought that was all our muscles could take, in would walk Norm (Forrest’s strength and conditioning coach) with boxes for plyometrics and an elastic harness he would hold while we pulled. I hated that freaking harness.

My impression of Forrest was that of the reluctant hero. He would give us the odd motivational speech that was always somehow exactly what we needed to hear at the time.

Paul Bradley going home was abrupt and unanticipated to us on the other team. We had no idea that it was really an issue. We’ve all had rashes and staph before. What I saw of Paul leaving was him walking in the house, teary, and saying, “they’re sending me home because of this stuff on my neck.” It was definitely more sad seeing the entire drama unfold in the episode.

Naturally, the next question in our heads was who was coming back. I heard a rumor that Steve Byrnes might be the one to come back. Watching the episode, I saw how close that was to happening. I wouldn’t have minded at all, I think he would’ve done well in the house, and was a good guy.

The suspense was built up for us, and it looks like he came back immediately, but it was really about four days until Pat Schultz came back. Pat coming back was a good pick to add a good striker to Team Rampage, and a witty guy, talks kinda funny though. As usual we were completely in the dark about everything, who, what, when, where … All in the name of the almighty reaction shot. Gotta love reality TV.

Since our team got to pick the first fight, there was alot of talking about possible matcups and who wanted to go first.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission gives you a five day suspension from fighting every round you fight. A lot of us on both teams had fought more than one round just fought five days ago, so it narrowed the list of potential fights. Jesse Taylor (a.k.a. JT, JT money, the money man, Little John McCarthy, lol) and Tim both wanted to fight first, but the guy Tim picked to fight had fought to the second round in the elimination bout, so it was JT’s fight.

The fight pick of JT vs. Dolce was a good pick stylistically. I hadn’t seen Dolce’s fight the week before, but it was pretty common knowledge that taking Dolce down was preferable to standing with him.

Rampage’s comment that Dolce is “a good fighter, even if he is little taller than a hobbit” had me rolling. What everyone may not realize, is that confessionals are in confidence, and we don’t know what was said until it airs in the actual episode. With editing included, a lot of the show is as new to us that were there as well as everyone watching at home.

Rampage’s pre-fight visits were pretty regular, and showed he genuinely cared for his guys.

One thing we quickly learned was that when you are about to fight the camera is on you 24/7, until the fight. The dishwasher scene with JT was a result of that. Did anyone else laugh? Priceless … Don’t be fooled by the editing, JT is every bit the meathead they portrayed him to be, but very animated and smart too.

Dolce’s pre-fight stare at JT was pretty intense. I remember watching, thinking, damn he looks mean right now.

What I noticed immediately about JT’s style, was that although he likes to take you down and hit you, he is constantly working and chipping away your energy. Rolling with him the first day felt like grappling a steamroller.

In the end, JT’s assault was enough to take out a very game Dolce. Dolce’s post-fight comment of being ready to step back in was no exaggeration, he was always training, like he was going to picked the next day. If anything were to open up, he was going to be ready.

What they didn’t show was the reason JT threw up, albeit exasperated by his high-pace fight, was the fact he drank two big sports drinks right before going out there. Competing on a stomach full of liquid is just not fun. JT said he thought he was going to throw up during the fight. Would have been interesting to see how they handled that. Personally, if JT threw up on me, end of fight …

Hearing Dana tell us for the first time that we would get five thousand to win and five thousand more for a finish, was awesome, and, finally, a good surprise for us.

-Amir

To check out Amir’s blog for Episode 2, click here.

Posted in: Amir's TUF 7 Blog • MMA • The Ultimate Fighter • UFC |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.