LAS VEGAS — A surgical technician with no pro fights under his belt, Amir Sadollah wasn't even close to dark horse status when Season 7 of "The Ultimate Fighter" started.
While most of the fighters who make it to the reality TV show are invited to sign up, Sadollah was a walk-on who impressed at a casting call in Newark, N.J. His number at the open tryouts was 115.
Sadollah earned his ticket to the show, but UFC president Dana White wasn't sure how long he would last.
"He's the one that I didn't think would make it to the end. I kind of doubted Amir," acknowledged White. "I didn't see it in the beginning, man, but let me tell you it's unbelievable how much I was wrong.
"And I've done that before. I doubted Rashad Evans. I didn't think Rashad Evans had the work ethic or the drive or the talent or anything and then he completely proved me wrong. And look at him now."
Evans, who won Season 2, is headlining UFC 88 in September, when he's due to meet former light-heavyweight champion Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell.
Sadollah can join the likes of Evans, Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Joe Stevenson, Michael Bisping, Kendall Grove, Nate Diaz and Mac Danzig as TUF winners if he can get past CB Dollaway in the live Season 7 finale Saturday night at The Palms (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET).
Other fighters from Season 7 will move on to fight in the UFC but they won't arrive with the prestige - or contract - that the TUF winner has.
Sadollah, a 27-year-old middleweight from Richmond, Va., actually beat Dollaway in the semifinals but the former Arizona State wrestler was given a second chance after Jesse Taylor, the other finalist, was dismissed for a drunken escapade after the show had finished taping. Dollaway and Tim Credeur, the other losing semifinalist, fought some two months ago to see who would take Taylor's place, with Dollaway finishing on top via decision.
Dollaway was one of the early favourites to win the show, a former all-American wrestler who was the first fighter chosen when coach Quinton (Rampage) Jackson started the team selection process. Sadollah was a surprise just to be there, having submitted former UFC fighter Steve Byrnes to earn a spot in the final 16.
"I can honestly say that I never put no any pressure on myself to make the final," said Sadollah. "The only pressure I put on myself was to do the best I could in the next fight I had. As I look back on it, (it's) a huge achievement and I'm really proud of that, but at the time I couldn't bother myself thinking about four fights, just thinking about the one next ."
Sadollah has won four fights already. Only Dollaway stands in his way for the title.
Dollaway, a 24-year-old from Ohio who now calls Tempe, Ariz., home, has self-confidence to spare and an Elvis-like curl of the lips. Combined, they spell cocky to some.
Rival coach Griffin, for one, thought so and said as much to the camera several times during the show. Dollaway was not impressed when he saw it play out on TV.
"Yeah it kind of did bother me since you know on the show, the whole time I was there, the whole six weeks I was there, he never said anything or acted like that to me," said Dollaway. "And then to see him say that on the show, it's kind of weird. He almost lost a fan, you know."
The image seems to be sticking, however. Dollaway's jaw dropped while waiting for Friday's weigh-in as a televised TV intro shown on the big screen called him "the smack-talking bruiser." Sadollah was labelled a "never-say-die warrior."
Both Dollaway and Sadollah weighed in at 185 pounds.
Dollaway probably did himself no favours with his response earlier in the week when asked if his coaches on the show had helped him.
"Ah, I'm not really going to give a lot of credit. I'd give more credit to my home camp, Arizona Combat Sports," he said after a pause. "They're the ones that trained me all the way through to where I am now.
"Actually you know I possibly felt like being on the show, for me, kind of made me lose a step. Towards the end I didn't really have any training partners. Most guys were hurt or they just weren't training at all. It's kind of hard to give the credit out."
While Dollaway did speak warmly about Jackson elsewhere on a media conference call, it was hardly the most politically correct response.
Sadollah was more effusive about Griffin's role as coach.
"I identified with Forrest a lot, like personality and fight style. He was definitely a big example to me, just believing in yourself and doing what you do and work hard and the reward will come.
"For all he pretends not to be, he's a good leader and a good coach. He led by example. He was good about sensing when you were tired or underconfident or needed a boost - or telling you when you did something well. He's just kind of a charismatic leader, I guess. You believed what he said."
Sadollah even moved to Las Vegas after the taped portion of the show was over so he could continue working with Griffin at the Xtreme Couture gym.
Dollaway - whose initials stand for Clarence Byron - was 6-0 before the show, getting into the sport after helping former TUF member Jesse Forbes prepare for a bout on his season finale card. He won his first MMA fight in 17 seconds and only Sadollah has beaten him to date.
Dollaway says he will be ready this time, saying he now knows that Sadollah is "dangerous" everywhere. Losing by armbar in the semifinal was a shock, he admitted.
"I actually underestimated his ground game. I thought there was no way he would submit me. Then lo and behold, he submits me. I thought if I was going to lose that fight, it would probably be catching a knee going in or something along those lines. Never in a million years did I think that I would lose the way I did."
Unlike Sadollah, Dollaway was a full-time fighter prior to the show. Before that, he worked part-time as a recruiter in the IT and telecom field.
He caught White's eye immediately in the cage.
"I knew he was nasty from the first day I ever saw him. He's just a mean kid in there."
