LAS VEGAS - Middleweight Amir Sadollah defeated C.B. Dollaway a second time via armbar to win "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 7 finale with a first-round submission at The Palms on Saturday night.

The two traded punches before Dollaway, a former all-American wrestler at Arizona State, took Sadollah down and started controlling him. Sadollah (2-0) weathered the storm and eventually caught an arm, slapping on an armbar from below with a standing Dollaway straining to escape.

Dollaway (7-2) raised his arms in disbelief when referee Herb Dean stopped the fight three minutes two seconds in. Dean mouthed "He tapped" and TV replays seemed to prove him right.

Dollaway later said he tapped once and then stopped when his arm loosened in Sadollah's grip.

"At that point, Herb ruled it as a tapout," he explained. "Just kind of a crappy way to it to end for me after putting in all the hard work and training and everything for thhis fight. ... Having it end so quick is just a disappointment."

Sadollah also submitted Dollaway during the taped portion of the TV series.

"My hat's off to C.B., he's a super-tough guy," said Sadollah. "But this fight showed me how far I have to go, how much I have to learn."

In the co-main event, Season 3 winner Kendall Grove won a split decision over Evan Tanner, bloodying and battering the former middleweight champion.

Sadollah, 27, joins the likes of former TUF winners Grove, Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Joe Stevenson, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Nate Diaz and Mac Danzig.

Other fighters from the reality show make it to the UFC, but the winner arrives with more prestige - and presumably a better contract. The winner gets a six-figure deal, but it is spread over six years.

Griffin and light-heavyweight champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson meet in a battle of Season 7 coaches at UFC 86 next month.

Sadollah, a former surgical technician who made the show through the open casting call, was to have met Jesse Taylor in the final after submitting Dollaway in the semifinal. But Taylor was given the boot after a drunken night out two days after the show's taping had ended, when he was caught on video kicking out the window of a limo. The UFC also said a boozed-up Taylor hassled patrons at a Vegas hotel.

With Taylor ousted, losing semifinalists Tim Credeur and C.B. Dollaway met to determine who replaced Taylor, with Dollaway advancing via a unanimous decision. Sadollah, meanwhile, moved to Las Vegas to train with Griffin at Xtreme Couture.

Tanner (34-8) was game but outmatched against the 25-year-old Grove (11-5).

The six-foot-six Hawaiian cut the 37-year-old Tanner, looking like a mountain man with a full beard, in a first round that saw him catch the former champion flush with an up kick and a flying knee. He pulled out another big knee in the second as Tanner muscled him at the fence. Tanner ended up taking big punishment in the round, absorbing elbows and knees in the clinch.

Tanner only succeeded in sticking around to take more of a beating. Still in the third, the veteran never quit and at times seemed one punch away from pulling it out.

In a strange scorecard, one judge had it 29-28 for Tanner while the other two had it 30-26 for Grove.

Tanner was beaten by Yushin Okami at UFC 83 in March in his return to action after almost two years from the sport. Grove, 25, was trying to bounce back after being stopped by Jorge Rivera and Canadian Patrick Cote.

Earlier, former marine Luigi Fioravanti (12-4) was not awed by 5-1 favourite Sanchez in their welterweight bout, wagging his finger when he resisted a Sanchez takedown and even managing a takedown of his own at the end of the first round.

Sanchez (22-2) was unable to put the gritty Fioravanti away until he staggered him with a head kick late in the third, then followed up with a knee to the face and threw more than a dozen punches at his turtled opponent until the referee stepped in at 4:07.

"I'm back, baby," said Sanchez, who has now won two straight after back-to-back losses to Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck.

Middleweight Drew (The Massacre) McFedries made short work of Marvin (The Beastman) Eastman, stopping the former Calgary Stampeder running back via TKO at 1:08 of the first round.

Welterweight Dustin Hazelett stopped Josh Burkman with a slick armbar at 4:46 of the second round after an entertaining fight that saw Hazelett (13-4) win the first round - almost choking out his opponent - and Burkman (20-6) rallying in the second until he left an arm dangling and paid for it.

Spencer (The King) Fisher survived a guillotine choke as time ran out to win a unanimous decision over Jeremy (Lil' Heathen) Stephens (15-3) in an energetic lightweight fight.

While MMA fighters bleed from all sorts of places, Fisher (22-4) showed off a pair of rarely seen bloody forearms in the cage, the after-effect of road rash from a bicycle accident. He was on his cellphone talking to his wife when he flipped over the handlebars in the days leading up to the fight.

Jiu-jitsu ace Dean (The Boogeyman) Lister stopped veteran middleweight Jeremy Horn via guillotine choke at 3:52 of the first round. The loss was the third straight - and fourth in five fights - for the 32-year-old Horn, whose record fell to 88-18-5. Lister improved to 11-5.

Matt Brown, a Season 7 grad dropping down to welterweight, pounded out a second career win over Season 6 alumnus Matt Arroyo in an all-action contest that had the early sparse crowd at The Pearl theatre standing. Arroyo had the best of the early going but seemed to fade when a slightly battered Brown (10-6) found his range.

Referee Herb Dean stopped it at 3:40 of the second round, with Arroyo (3-2) absorbing punishment on his back at the fence. Dean could have done Arroyo's face a favour by ending it a half-dozen punches earlier.

In another Season 7 middleweight matchup - not one of the evening's barnburners - Matt Riddle (1-0) won by unanimous decision over Dante Rivera (10-3).

Middleweight Rob Kimmons (21-3), in his UFC debut, submitted Rob Yundt (7-2) via guillotine choke at 3:58 of the first round.

Notes: The Cale Yarbrough-Tim Credeur bout was cancelled at the last minute. Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said Credeur was taking a prescription drug banned by the commission.

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