Amir Sadollah

(Don't miss next week's episode of 'My Baroni,' when Phil accidentally makes a date with two different ring girls on the same night!)

You may have been so excited about Tito Ortiz bringing his one-man Schadenfreude act back to the UFC that you forgot all about it, but another Octagon veteran returns at UFC 106, and it’s the NYBA himself, Phil Baroni.  When last we saw Baroni he was fending off allegations that he was pharmaceutically-enhanced before losing a one-sided decision to Joe Riggs in Strikeforce.  Now he’s one of the rare fighters to get another shot in the UFC immediately after a loss, and he takes on Amir Sadollah this Saturday night in a contest between two guys in desperate need of a win. 

So go on, Phil.  Tell us all about how bad you're going to beat this mamaluke, or maybe something about how you’ve been avoiding having sex with your wife lately.  Come on and dazzle us.  It's been too long and we can hardly wait to hear your new material:

“Look, I’ve said it all already,” Baroni said. “The trash talking is starting to sound like a broken record, even to me. Nothing that I say is going to affect the outcome of the fight. Nothing he says is going to affect the outcome of the fight. There is no need to hype it up because he is a big name among the fans after winning the reality show. I’m coming to reestablish myself in the UFC at his expense, and I’m sure he is coming to do the exact same thing at my expense, since he lost his last bout. …I’m done with all that, at least for now.  I’m not focused on that stuff. I’m focused on my training. I’ve got a tremendous opportunity in front of me, and I’m doing everything that I can to properly prepare so that I can take full advantage of it.”

Phil, it’s like I don’t even know who you are anymore.

(Click the image to watch the video on Spike.com.)

Kimbo Slice must have had other plans that day, but luckily Roy Nelson and Dana White were free to hang with Amir Sadollah for the latest edition of Spike.com's TUF 10 wrap-up show, The Aftermath. Dana does his best to debunk some rumors: No, he doesn't have influence on when fights are stopped on the show — and how dare you suggest otherwise, Roy — and no, the alcohol isn't provided for dramatic purposes. All booze is requested by the fighters themselves, not that drunken jackassery has been a problem on this season so far. (Still, Wes Sims can't stay dry forever.) There's also an interesting moment where Dana gets on Roy's case for not joining a major camp. ("I think that it hurts you as a fighter...to not be sparring and training with guys that are going to push you every day.") And he's still a little irritated about Roy's post-fight Whopper order.

Later, the panel analyzes what Kimbo needs to do to be competitive in MMA, and Dana addresses the status of Quinton "Rampage," "B.A. Baracus" Jackson: "Rampage [announced] he's retired because he's mad at me. And I'm mad at him. It happens sometimes. I'm sure we'll get this thing figured out, and I'm sure we'll see him and Rashad fight. I highly doubt that Rampage is really retired."

According to InsideFights.com, Phil Baroni will make his return to the UFC at UFC 106 (November 21st, Las Vegas) against cursed TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah. It will be Baroni's first Octagon appearance since his submission loss to Pete Sell at UFC 51. After leaving the UFC in 2005, Baroni competed in PRIDE, Icon Sport, and Strikeforce, among other promotions, going 5-5 as a middleweight, then 3-1 as a welterweight. He most recently dropped a decision to Joe Riggs at Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields.

Amir Sadollah's MMA career hasn't quite lived up to the promise of his storybook run on TUF 7, where he scored stoppage victories over Steve Byrnes, Gerald Harris, Matt Brown, and CB Dollaway (twice), despite coming into the show with a 0-0 professional record. After two separate injuries suffered in training, Sadollah finally made his return to the cage at UFC 101, 14 months after the TUF 7 finale, came in way underweight, and was TKO'd by Johny Hendricks in 29 seconds. Needless to say, both guys have a lot to prove, and the loser of their match will have to decide if he really wants to continue in a profession that's treated him with so much cruelty. No word yet on whether this match will be on UFC 106's televised card. Any early predictions?

(Johny Hendricks vs. Richard Gamble, 3/15/08)

Saturday night will see the Octagon debuts of three welterweights who joined up with the WEC just before the league folded its 170-pound division. Now the UFC will give these fighters a chance to prove themselves — slotting one of them in a high-profile main card fight against TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah. Get to know UFC 101’s trio of newbies below…

JOHNY HENDRICKS (WW)
Experience: 5-0 record (3 wins by TKO, 1 by submission). His last two fights were in the WEC, where he defeated Justin Haskins and Alex Serdyukov.
Will be facing: Amir Sadollah (1-0 MMA/UFC)


Lowdown: While wrestling at Oklahoma State University, Hendricks won two NCAA Division I titles at 165-pounds, and was a three-time Big 12 Conference champion. After graduating in 2007, he racked up three MMA wins in local Oklahoma shows before joining the WEC. But despite his fearsome wrestling credentials, he doesn't plan on laying on top of Sadollah for three rounds. As he said in this UFC.com profile: “You can’t afford to play in Amir’s guard at any point. A lot of wrestlers have tried that with Amir and have ended up failing badly...I actually now like to stand and strike. I’ve tried to finish all my fights while standing on my feet. If I take a guy down and he wants to get back up, I’ll just let them...I want to provide entertaining fights, not wrestling matches. If I’m not active on top, I’ll back out and stand up. The happiness of the fans is what pays the bills and I’m aware of that.” Hendricks has recently been training at Striking Unlimited in Las Vegas.

(Looks like somebody's heading to the glue factory. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Seriously, the Amir Sadollah Curse doesn't even come close. Carmichael Dave broke the news yesterday that James Irvin, who was scheduled to face Wilson Gouveia later this month at UFC 102, has been forced to drop out of the match due to a serious knee injury suffered in training which will likely require surgery. And that means it's time to update the James Irvin "Why Me?" timeline...

— 6/9/06: A Strikeforce match between Irvin and Bobby Southworth ends in a no-contest after both fighters fell out of the cage. Irvin screwed up his left leg during the tumble and couldn't continue fighting.

— 5/26/07: Irvin tears the ACL and MCL of his right knee during a UFC 71 match against Thiago Silva, and the fight is ruled a TKO victory for Silva.