Amir Sadollah took a unanimous decision over MMA legend Phil Baroni at UFC 106.
Two generations of MMA met in the opening bout of the PPV. Phil Baroni, a one-time star of the UFC's dark ages when few pay-per-views were sold, faced Amir Sadollah a product of The Ultimate Fighter show that brought the UFC to mainstream popularity.
In the first round, Baroni came out swinging, catching Sadollah with a hard right hand but was failed to drop Sadollah in the critical first exchange. In the clinch, he caught Sadollah with repeated hard uppercuts that snapped the younger fighter's head back. But Sadollah answered with knees to the head and body.
With 2:33 left in the first. Baroni got a take down and attempted to batter Sadollah on the ground. But, stymied, he let Sadollah up with 1:45 left in the round. The two traded up against the fence with Baroni getting cut by a combination of punches and knees. At the end of the first round Baroni was a bloody mess.
Between rounds, Baroni's coach Javier Mendez shouted at his fighter to avoid the clinch and stay in boxing range. But less than a minute into the second round. Baroni found himself backed up to the cage, eating knees and punches. But Baroni was game and punched Sadollah back. Sadollah answered with straight kicks and quickly found his way back to the clinch. Half-way through the round, a visibly tired Baroni was eating punches, knees and kicks and answering with visibly weaker punches. A straight kick, flying knee combination at the 1:40 mark hurt Baroni.
After the second round, Mendez told Baroni that he had to "take him out" to get the win. Sadollah's corner instructed him to "keep f**king kicking him". Sadollah followed the advice immediately with leg kicks and straight kicks. He followed up with brutal elbows to the face up against the fence, cutting Baroni's forehead badly. Sadollah buckled Baroni with brutal series of strikes, but Baroni hung on gamely. to survive the fight.