170 lbs: Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah
Odds: (+130 Baroni /-160 Sadollah )
The second bout of the night sees the Octagon return of Hammer House’s “New York Bad Ass” Phil Baroni, who will be facing Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah. Baroni, once one of the most promising young stars in the UFC, has had a career of ups and downs, largely due to his legendarily awful gas tank. Sadollah, for his part, has done nothing since winning The Ultimate Fighter to prove that he belongs in King of the Cage, much less the UFC, so both men have a lot to prove in this fight, which could well see the loser out of the company.
Amir Sadollah, a grappler who shocked the world by submitting CB Dolloway twice to win The Ultimate Fighter, was a shocking underdog winner, as his finale win over Dolloway was the first official win of his professional career. Unfortunately, Sadollah never had a chance to build any momentum off the win, as injuries and matchup changes kept him out of action for over a year. In his return, he was destroyed out of hand by Johnny Hendricks within 30 seconds. Sadollah’s standup is shamefully bad for a fighter in the world’s biggest company, so if he wants to have a chance he is going to have to find a way to get Phil Baroni on the ground, something he is most likely woefully incapable of doing.
Baroni, who fights out of Mark Coleman’s Hammer House camp, has traditionally been a top level fighter in the first round, and a bottom level fighter in subsequent rounds. Gifted with a surplus of knockout power in both hands and dominant wrestling, Baroni has all the tools to be one of the best welterweights in the world, except for anything remotely resembling cardio conditioning. Baroni tends to go out, throw down hard for one round, and then completely run out of gas. Clearly, then, his best bet is to be wildly aggressive, coming at the inexperienced Sadollah with everything he has and attempting to overwhelm him.
Realistically, the only way Sadollah wins this fight is if he literally runs away like Kalib Starnes for the first two rounds, waits for Baroni to gas completely, and then tries to sneak in a takedown and submit Baroni, whose submission defense is not top-notch. There is no way Sadollah is going to take Baroni down in the first round, and there is also no way Sadollah can stand with Baroni for an entire round without getting his head launched into a low orbit.
Fight Prediction: Baroni by KO, round 1.
