Amir Sadollah Defeats Phil Baroni

This was a very favorable match up for Amir Sadollah. Phil Baroni is a brawler who is slightly past his prime. So, Amir got to put his stand up skills on display. Phil was kind enough to hang back and take the abuse. Aside from the thrilling first few minutes of the fight, Phil had no answer for Amir's offense. Baroni looked particularly bad in the clinch, even though Amir is no Anderson Silva.

Joe Rogan said that welterweight was where Phil should have been all along. However it's also possible that the weight cut hampered Phil's already sketchy cardio. Guys like Phil get very discouraged when the fight doesn't go their way. We all saw how helpless he looked in the latter portion of the fight. He suffered a mental and physical breakdown.

Of course, if Phil had more gas in his tank, he'd have felt a lot more confident about his chances of winning the fight.

It's great to see Amir win a fight by way of something other than an arm bar. He's no longer just a scrappy kid with fight-saving submission skills. On this night, he looked like a real MMA fighter. That's great. He just needs to take some cues from Forrest Griffin.

By that I mean, he has to continue keeping his chin hidden away from more powerful punchers. As long as he doesn't go chasing for a Liddell-style knockout, he'll be just fine. I hope.

Next Fight: Little Nog vs. Luiz Cane

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