for those of you who have no idea who the heck amir is, he's this year's ultimate fighter!!! and woo hoo hooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! amir was by far my favorite guy on the show and is a total class act. very funny, very unassuming, lots of self-deprecating humor, just a very likable guy who i was rooting for from the beginninng! yes, we're back in the land of mixed martial arts (mma), my newest passion.
for the uninitiated, the ultimate fighter is a reality television show (this was the 7th season) where mma athletes compete to be the last man standing (literally) at the end of the season. the teams are coached by current mma fighters, this year they were forrest griffin and quinten "rampage" jackson. the winner receives a contract with the ultimate fighting championship and they get fast tracked for a title fight. this year's winner is the dishy gentleman in the picture, amir sadollah.
i just have to say right here that forrest griffin and rampage jackson were really great. i've only seen the ultimate fighter 6, last season, and those coaches, matt hughes and matt serra, couldn't stand each other. they were really, really, really just tolerating each other, barely, so while that made for some drama it was also kind of, well, it was just kind of icky. made for crappy dynamics between the fighters in the house, and that kind of sucked, i thought. forrest and rampage were the complete opposite. they obviously like and have a great regard for one another, so the overall atmosphere this year was just so much better and so much more fun. they were also both very funny. rampage would say stuff sometimes that was completely obvious but the way he said it was so funny, and forrest would say what you were thinking but might not say. they were really great, forrest has a great talent for coaching which was impressive to see, and i can't wait to see their fight july 5th. it's gonna be wild!
back to the fight at hand! it was a really exciting fight, and the first re-match for the winner of the show, ever. amir had already defeated cb dolloway in the semi-final. both drew and i really disliked cb. he's a good fighter, i'll give him that, but he's also an arrogant, cocky, self-important jock and he really rubbed me the wrong way (and judging from the comments on a youtube video of one of amir's kickboxing matches, i wasn't the only one.) anyway, amir was supposed to fight a different guy, jesse taylor, but jesse got kicked off the show after it finished for some bad, drunken behavior. i felt really bad for him because jesse's basically a good kid. not the brightest bulb on the christmas tree, but not malicious and a seriously good fighter. we'll see him again, to be sure. to figure out who amir would fight they brought back the two guys who lost the semi-final matches and they fought each other. i liked cb's opponent in that match, tim credeur, so much better than cb. tim was another guy on the show we really liked, but it was so satisfying to watch amir kick cb's ass - again. using the same move, too! you'd think he'd have figured out he couldn't let himself get stuck in a standing arm bar, but he didn't.
the championship fight was on saturday but i didn't see it until last night because i was waiting for drew to get home from his trip to seattle so we could watch it together. i'd watched the last episode of the regular season, the amir v. cb semi-final fight, the night before. fuck, it was nerve wracking!!!! i was squealing and jumping around and almost biting my fingernails, and i quit biting my fingernails in third grade. it went almost the whole three rounds, too, but amir caught cb in an arm bar half way through the third round! it was an illuminating fight, because the rest of cb's fights during the show didn't go very long and he gassed by the end of the first round, which was but really wasn't kind of surprising, if one thinks about it. even more surprising was his inability to do much of anything once he had amir on the ground. he could take him down (which was frustrating) but he only passed his guard twice and for the amount of punches he was throwing very few actually connected. amir, meanwhile, was throwing very hard punches and great head kicks and his ability to defend himself when cb had him on the ground was really fucking impressive. drew reminded me that he is a jiujitsu guy, which i had kind of forgotten because he's also a kick boxer and i'm partial to kick boxers. don't ask me why, i just am.
i was so seriously thrilled when amir won the final fight. ask drew - i was shouting and jumping up and down and doing the happy dance until drew reminded me i should really be watching my back. so i quit jumping up and down but seriously, i'm still fucking elated!!! it was so great to see someone who is a really nice guy, who's obviously intelligent and reflective and so un-jock like, win the show. and amir hadn't had any professional fights before getting on the show, which was also pretty unusual. amir was just so unassuming all the way through the show that i really think people underestimated him. he wasn't doing the whole "i'm gonna clean up the floor with him" b.s. that so many fighters do, and it was a refreshing change.
the other thing i like about amir, which caught my attention at the start of tuf7, is that from his full and 3/4 profile he looks exactly like my friend, jamie. jamie would never have been caught dead doing something like mma. i just can't even imagine it. but it was really neat to see this guy who turned out to be such a likable, nice guy who also, on occasion, looks so much like my dear friend who i miss so much. i'll always have a soft spot for amir because he looks like jamie. i'm just so glad he won. i've never been so excited about anyone winning a fight, ever, not even gsp. woo hoo, amir!!!!
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