By E. Spencer Kyte (espencerkyte@mmaratings.net)
Is it just me or is are the UFC and Amir Sadollah already laying out the blueprint for his post-fighting career, despite the fact that the former Ultimate Fighter has all of two professional fights under his belt?
During Season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter, Sadollah, pictured with former coach Forrest Griffin, hosted a weekly update segment.
While part of the purpose of the show was to keep fans up to date on upcoming UFC events, a secondary goal was to re-introduce fans to the affable Sadollah, the charismatic winner of Season 7 who had been off the radar for a number of months thanks to multiple injuries.
In the end, Amir had more success as a host than he did in the ring, as Johny Hendricks ruined his return in just 29 seconds at UFC 101 in Philadelphia.
Now, with veteran Phil Baroni on the horizon at UFC 106, instead of finding Sadollah inside the gym at Xtreme Couture working on his skills in the ring, he’s back on camera, working on his skills on the mic, hosting The Ultimate Fighter: The Aftermath on Spike.com.
As charming and talented as Sadollah is as a host and television personality, after getting overwhelmed in 29 seconds, is this really what he should be focusing on right about now or are we seeing a quick shift in focus for the former Ultimate Fighter?
While a career in the cage certainly doesn’t last forever, Sadollah has now hosted more shows for the UFC than he’s had professional fights in his career.
Although Phil Baroni is more talk than anything else at this stage in his career, “The New York Badass” still has powerful hands and could send Sadollah to 1-2 by the time the curtain falls on UFC 106.
We’ve seen a few fighters making the transition to the broadcast side of things over the last few years, with Frank Mir, Randy Couture and Kenny Florian all having spent time behind the mic at one point or another.
The difference is, those guys have all been around the block a time or two, while Sadollah is just getting his feet wet.
Amir Sadollah certainly has a future in the broadcasting business; he’s funny, engaging and well-spoken, qualities that will serve him well in his future endeavors.
Unfortunately, they won’t serve him very well in the cage when Phil Baroni is trying to knock his head off, the same way they didn’t help when Johny Hendricks stood across from him with the same goal in mind.
Maybe Sadollah should set aside the post-fight career plans for a month or two and worry about his current career instead.
You know, the one where he is a professional cage fighter…
